The Hummingbird Hawk-Moth (Macroglossum stellatarum) is a moth belonging to the family of Sphinx Moths (Sphingidae). This family is familiarly known as the Hummingbird moths. The flight of all Sphinx moths is similar to the flight of true Hummingbirds. The Hummingbird Hawk-Moths also drinks nectar in fly like a Hummingbird. It changes position very rapidly when flying from one flower to an other. In contrast to true Hummingbirds (which live in the
tropics) you may watch the Hummingbird Hawk-Moth in Germany and the rest of Europe. Many people in Europe think they have seen a Hummingbird because they have never heard of the Hummingbird Hawk-Moth. That is no surprise because the Sphinx Moth looks just like some Hummingbirds when it is flying. It has a grey body and a black tail with white spots at the end. It moves so fast that it is difficult to see its antenna and its long probiscus with which it sucks nectar out of flowers. Its wing-spread is 40 to 50 mm. The Hummingbird Hawk-Moth lives in warm regions of the Palearctic and the Nearctic. The Palearctic is a subregion of the Holoarctic region and begins at the Islands of Kanars and North Africa going to Europe and East Asia to Japan, Kurile Islands and Kamtschatka . The fauna of this big region is nearly homogeneous. The Nearctic is also a subregion of the Holoarctic and contains North America. The Hummingbird Hawk-Moth is a long distance migratory moth which flies to the polar region and high in mountains up to the tree-line. These Moths flies from the begining of summer in the middle of Europe and can be seen in great numbers. They can be watched from the end of June and more often from August to autumn if descendants of spring immigrants begin to fly to visit flowers on meadows and in gardens. Unlike most moths they only fly in daylight. The caterpillar lives from June to October. In warm regions the cocoon survives the winter. The cocoon will survive the winter in most parts of France and southern England as the caterpillar usually finds a sheltered spot. Unfortunately many gardeners destroy them in the spring unaware of what they are.

In North America we find some species of Hummingbirds and some species of Hummingbird Moths. So this often leads to confusion. The kind of flying is nearly identical and that's the reason why Sphinx Moths often called Hummingbird Moths. If you are interested in north american Moths you should visit the Homepage Moths of North America. You should also visit the Homepage of Hank Hogan.

Video

The Hummingbird Hawk-Moth visiting flowers. In this short video (35 seconds; format 160 x 120 pixel) the Hummingbird Hawk-Moth shows you its kind of flying and drinking nectar. This video is compressed by DIVX.