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	Hummingbird Moths

Hummingbird moths resemble tiny hummingbirds.

Something is hovering on a flower in your garden. At first glance, it looks like a miniature hummingbird, 1 ½ to 2 ½ half inches. A closer look reveals a plumpish, slightly fuzzy body between the blur of swiftly moving wings. You are looking at a hummingbird moth.

Hummingbird moths are not uncommon in New Hampshire but often puzzle those who see one for the first time. They are specialized to feed on nectar from flowers like hummingbirds do and hover near blossoms the same way that a hummingbird does. Unlike most moths, they fly during the daytime.

These moths have a "tongue" called a proboscis that is a long tube for sucking up nectar. They can uncurl it and stick it deep within tubular flowers such as petunias, honeysuckle, trumpet vine, and phlox. While the moth hovers at the flower and feeds with this proboscis, flower pollen sticks to the moth's body and is then transferred to the next flower on which it feeds. In this way, hummingbird moths pollinate plants the same way that bees do.

Hummingbird moths are in the genus Hemaris and are also called clearwing moths. They mimic bumblebees with clear wings and sometimes-similar coloration. There are several species that occur in New Hampshire. The Hummingbird Clearwing Moth or Common Clearwing (Hemaris thysbe) has a beautiful olive-green, red, and yellowish-orange body. Good numbers of this species can be found during the summer on the pickerelweed in Turkey Pond at New Hampshire Audubon's Silk Farm Wildlife Sanctuary. Other species that may be seen in New Hampshire include the Snowberry Clearwing or Bumblebee Moth (H. diffinis) and Slender or Graceful Clearwing Moth (H. gracilis). Hummingbird moths are part of the larger Sphingidae family of moths, often called sphinx moths or hawk moths.

We usually see only one species of hummingbird in New Hampshire, the Ruby-throated Hummingbird. This is the only hummingbird that breeds east of the Mississippi River. Each year there are one or two records of Rufous Hummingbirds in New Hampshire, usually in the fall, but it is a rarity in the state. Neither of these birds is as tiny as a Hummingbird Moth; they measure 3 ¾ inches in length.

Next time you see what looks like a very small hummingbird on the phlox in your garden, you will know that is a moth, not a bird.