#Hawk moths

[beausbugbiome]

Tobacco hornworm — Manduca sexta 🐛

Often confused with the tomato hornworm—the tobacco hornworm has 7 diagonal stripes along with a red posterior horn, while the tomato hornworm has 8 stripes and a blueish-black posterior horn. 🍅

[shinoposting]

Just a funny little guy hanging out on the old burn pile

He'll grow up to be a Tersa Sphinx Moth (Xylophanes tersa)

(left image credit u/fallen87angel)

(right image credit Aaron Ansarov)

[bitsandbirds]

I genuinely got fooled for a sec when I saw it. I thought "Is that a hummingbird?". And then it clicked.

Eurasian Hummingbird Hawkmoth (Macroglossum stellatarum), Ireland

[briery]

Elephant Hawk moth (larva) looks like a tiny bear!

[rattyexplores]

Hunter Hawkmoth resting on a plastic rose.

23/01/22 - Theretra sp.

QLD:WET

[uncharismatic-fauna]

Uncharismatic Fact of the Day

The moth Xanthopan morgani holds the record for the longest proboscis of any insect, with a length of over 35 cm (14 in) when fully extended. Even more impressive, the existence of this moth’s existence was predicted over 40 years before the first specimen was discovered. After being sent an orchid with a nectary tube over a foot long, naturalists Charles Darwin and Alfered Russel Wallace speculated that only a moth with an equally long proboscis could pollinate it. However, proof of the moth’s existence was only discovered 20 years after Darwin died, and the species was appropriately named Darwin’s Hawk Moth.

(Image: Two specimins of Darwin’s Hawk Moth (Xanthopan morganii) by Joel Minet)

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[kndll-art]

margharita / lime hawk moth

270x215mm / watercolour

instagram

[behehemoths]

Eyed hawk-moth Smerinthus ocellatus

This species was first described Carl Linnaeus in 1758.

Image credit: webandi on Pixabay

[image ID: a moth with hook shaped light and dark brown forewings and pink and yellow orche colored hind wings transitioning basally from pink to yellow. There are large blue eyespots on the hind wings that are rimmed with black and partially covered by the fore wings.]

[dionsysus]

Oleander Hawk Moth.

Prints | Instagram

[noir-poetography]

White-lined Sphinx Moth

© 2023, James Blatter

[colorsoutofearth]

Elephant Hawkmoth (Deilephila elpenor) in flight

Photo by Stephen Dalton

[pansy-placebo]

Have any of you ever heard of the hummingbird moths we get in Britain?

So, I thought I saw a hummingbird last year. It was much bigger than a bug could be, I thought, and it hovered around flowers and looked like it had feathers.

I got pretty close but it was never still enough to see clearly. Then, when I told my parents they said "oh! it was probably a moth!" and I was baffled for a long time. Like, how could a moth look like and act so much like a hummingbird?

Until I googled "hummingbirds in the UK" and this fucker comes up:

Everyone, meet the hummingbird hawk-moth; one of the weirdest and coolest cases of convergent evolution on this planet.

This is the kinda thing I'd see in fiction and go "oooh cool, bug hummingbird! Wish we had those on earth!" But we do. We really do have them on earth!! Isn't that nuts?!?!?

[rbade-art]

[velvetbatss]

Death’s Head Hawk Moth ☠️

[briery]

Catalpa Sphinx moth caterpillar that has been parasitised by a braconid wasp. Attached to the caterpillar are the wasp pupae, or cocoons that have finished feeding and are metamorphosing into adults. (Hi-Res).

[herpsandbirds]

Oleander Hawk Moth (Daphnis nerii), family Sphingidae, Taiwan

photographs by Gracy Kam