This Week’s Creature Feature: It Looks Like a Bird
The hummingbird clear-wing moth looks and acts like its namesake bird. This is one of the few moths that actively feed during the day. They hover and fly like a hummingbird, drinking flower nectar with their long tongue. To complete the mimic, they have a greenish back and a pale belly. Their steering tail, however, looks more like a shrimp’s.
Hummingbird moths, common throughout Maryland, have excellent color perception. They are attracted to bright flowers with trumpet like openings.
Their life cycle has an extended caterpillar stage. As compared to the monarch butterfly with five generations, in the north the hummingbird moth can manage only one generation a year. In the south, including coastal Maryland, there can be two generations a summer.
The moths lay eggs on several types of plants, including honeysuckle, blueberry and hawthorn. As the caterpillars develop into moths, they go through a pupa stage. This allows them to be dormant, asleep, for long periods. The caterpillars that pupate at the end of the season over-winter in leaf litter and emerge as flying adults in the spring.
There are two similar species, the slender clear-wing and the snowberry clear-wing moths.
The clear-winged moths are affected by spraying for other insects. To feed these hungry caterpillars, consider planting the native variety of hawthorn bush.