Treebeard`s Photos

We had an unexpected visitor to the garden this morning!

This is a White-Lined Sphinx (Hyles lineata) moth working new flowers of the Purple Coneflower (Echinaceae purpurea) in the Composite (Asteraceae) family in the garden this morning. I think of these as nocturnal or twilight moths, but this one stayed active until after 11 am. I was glad it made an exception! (San Marcos Pass, 16 July 2009)

They beat their wings so fast, but I believe they vibrate their wings rather than flapping them, like little helicopters. They seem very much like little hummingbirds, and our hummers were actively chasing it off. Like the hummers themselves, it kept coming back as soon as their attention was elsewhere.

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