Monday, July 18, 2011

Pretty but What is He? (Identified)

Settling in for the evening (?) on my neighbor's fig tree. Anybody know what he is?

You are the smartest folk I know... GardenWalk GardenTalk came up with Clearwing Hummingbird moth, Hemaris thysbe which gave me a starting point. I found a great site called Butterflies and Moths of North America and I think I have identified him as Snowberry clearwing (Hemaris diffinis). See his description here.

Butterflies and Moths of North America (BAMONA) has a great wealth of information gathered by "citizen scientists". Each species attibute page has information for identification, caterpillar host plants, food plants, habitat and range. Since my guy is a little out of his normal range I decided to submit my find for their records. Take a moment and check out their project.

5 comments:

Jester said...

Looks like a hummingbird moth. Not sure if thats the actaul name, but we have bunches of them here in Jersey. They fly around to all the flowers just like a hummingbird but just a bi smaller.

Anonymous said...

Clearwing Hummingbird moth, Hemaris thysbe, I believe. I get them on the Duranta.

Karen said...

I'm glad someone knows what he is, no clue here, but he sure is pretty! There are so many strange bugs out there, hard to believe the variety.

Any chance you'll be up in our neck of the woods on your trip?

Unknown said...

I knew y'all would know. However after looking up Hemaris thysbe I thought it might be a different species due to his yellow banding. Viewing http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Hemaris-thysbe and then http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Hemaris-diffinis ... I think he is a might be the Snowberry clearwing Hemaris diffinis. Either way, he may just be a little out of his territory here in North Texas.

khaki said...

Totally bizarre- have no idea! But it's pretty!