Macroglossum stellatarum, or the Bee moth/hummingbird hawk-moth! (Bee moth is their European name.)
They have the eye of Sauron. 👁
The anatomy of these cozening insects!!!
Immediately noticeable, they look like hummingbirds, and have fooled several people into thinking they are hummingbirds. This is actually because they evolved in an environment similar to that where the hummingbird evolved from, and they are actually unrelated. This is called homoplasy, or convergent evolution.
Uncommon for a moth, they don't have any sexual dimorphism in their antennae.
While the abdomen fluff on most moths is flat, theirs puffs out, giving the appearance of tail feathers.
Most species, if not all species, are smaller than the smallest species of hummingbird, the bee hummingbird.
Similar to hummingbirds, they can fly backwards. They are one of the few moth species able to do so.
Their larvae are called hornworms because they have a little horn on their rump. This horn is perfectly safe to touch despite its coloring, which is usually a purplish red, but will turn blue with an orange tip when they reach the last instar.
The eggs are a pale green color, as to match up with the buds of the Galium plant. The larvae are born yellow, and as they get older (usually) turn green, as to blend in with their surroundings, which would typically be the Galium plant. If their surroundings aren't green, though, they might take on a different color.
The larvae in some species also have these dots throughout their whole body that look like eyes, and when you reach the bump at the top of their head the pattern inside the dot is really tiny and it makes them look ravenous.
They on average produce 2 broods per year, but in warmer climates may be able to produce up to 4 broods.
Most of their senses are very weak, and they almost exclusively rely on their enhanced eyesight, as they are able to detect even the slightest movement and easily recognize things like plants and colors.
They can flap their wings 80 beats per second on average, whereas most species of hummingbirds can only flap their wings at 53 beats per second. The only hummingbird that can match their speed is the amethyst wood-star hummingbird, which has the world record for the fastest wing-beating out of any hummingbird species. And it should be noted that the amethyst wood-star can only flap their wings at 80 beats per second, 80 beats per second for the hummingbird hawk-moth is just what the majority are able to, with many species having much faster wing-flapping speeds.
Like hummingbirds, they make an audible humming noise when they fly.
Their wingspan is around 40 to 45 millimeters (1.6 to 1.8 inches).
They still fly around in extremally high temperatures where their thorax's temperature may get as high as 45℃ (113℉), this is the highest temperature that any other moth species can withstand, and is near the limit for when other insects muscles stop working.
The larvae move to the ground to pupate, usually to the base of their host plant or on dead leaves. Their pupae are a pale brownish color as to blend in with the ground.
They evolved to have colors that their predators can't see, rendering them practically invisible to these predators.
They are presumed to be able to fly at 5.3 meters per second, or 19.3 kilometers per hour (12 mph), based on the speeds of other moths in their genus.
Their proboscis is as long as their body is, hence why they keep it curled up.
The use their proboscis to drink the nectar from flowers. They prefer longer flowers, such as honeysuckles, jasmine, buddleia (sometimes called butterfly bush.), primula, pansies, lilacs, verveine, echium, phlox, stachys, the flowers off of tobacco plants, and red valerians (Red valerians are sometimes called kiss-me-quicks).
The larvae eat the leaves off of honeysuckles, hawthorns, epilobium, chickweeds, centranthus, other species of the bedstraw family (such as coffea, which is the plant that produces coffee), tomato plants, and some species' larvae eat tobacco leaves. The fact that the larvae might eat their crops makes some farmers consider them to be a pest.
The females will lay up to 200 eggs each on an individual Galium. The reasoning for this is so that the larvae will have an easy meal when they first hatch, and won't have to share it with their siblings.
The reason they prefer longer flowers is because they know they'll have less competition from other nectar-eating animals, as only species with long proboscis' can drink the nectar from these flowers.
They can remember where particularly nectar-filled flowers are and tend to return to them everyday.
While they usually only fly during warm days when the sun is out, they have been spotted flying on rainy days.
After collecting their nectar, they return to the same spot everyday to rest.
When a male and a female spot each other, they begin to chase after each other, in what is essentially a game of tag, where they switch back and forth between chasing after the other and running away from the other, until eventually one catches up to the other and they mate.
They usually only stick around for the warmer parts of the year, but they are found all year round throughout Portugal all the way to Japan (by 'Portugal to Japan' I mean that the zones it inhabits all year round literally form a line that goes from Portugal to Japan). They are found throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa. They have occasionally been found in the United States, usually around Texas, California, and Utah. Because the Australians don't need to see them, I guess.
They prefer the heat and will usually live in tropical areas, but some species are found in much colder environments such as Alaska.
They prefer to live where there are lots of flowers, such as woodland edges and gardens, but may also live in coastal and suburban areas.
They usually overwinter (hibernate) in between the cracks in trees, rocks, and even buildings.
Cool facts's that didn't fit into these categories.
Not only are they called bee moths there, but they aren't even considered to be hawk moths in Europe.
Hummingbird moths are a different species from hummingbird hawk-moths, with the main difference being that hummingbird moths aren't as large due to the fact that they are sphinx moths rather than hawk-moths. They are a part of the same family, however.
The only reason that they're in the Sphingidae family is because their larvae were thought to look like sphinxes.
