Macroglossum Stellatarum - Tumblr Posts
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?!?!?
#HUMMINGBIRD HAWK MOTH👐🏻& CATNIP👾🍃
@samirafee
Video courtesy of my dad 🩷
Fruczak gołąbek, or the hummingbird hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum) is oftentimes called the Polish hummingbird. The actual hummingbird is native to the Americas, while this little guy can be found in Europe, northern Africa, as well as part of Asia. Adult specimen consume flower nectar, and here you can see it having a little snack in my mum's garden 🌸🌱
My new favourite flower - hummingbird hawk-moth stays relatively still for a long time while feeding, so I get way more chances than on lavender.
Lviv 2024-08-25
📷Canon Powershot A650 IS
Hummingbird hawkmoth! Gotta be one of the best insects of all time
Rel!
I love them fr!!!
i was so excited to see a hummingbird hawk-moth inside the garden centre today that i bothered a stranger about it.
lucky for me he was an entomologist and just as hyped! 🥹 (unlucky for me, i couldn't wow him with my sick moth knowledge.)
Day 3 of October drawing prompts!
Mothtober: Hummingbird Hawk-Moth
Maltober: Ghosts/ Regrets
Apparently these moths can symbolize good luck. I had to ponder for a while about the intersection between good luck and ghosts/ regrets, and figured that both love and time existed in the space between both. This reminded me of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, and a wonderful, poignant quote from near the end of the book. I really do love how it turned out with the ghostly hand.
