What’s in Your Backyard?
What’s going on in your world? Not your political or social, or work world. What’s going on in your nature world. Have you looked around recently? Do you know what’s currently flying in your backyard? Since this one was in our back yard just a few days ago we’ll put the nature spotlight on it. Here we go!
It’s abundant in North America. That means there are many of them. It’s big. That means you can see them easily-if you are aware of them. It’s camouflaged when still, but usually moving-you can’t miss a wingspan of almost 4 inches. It’s mistaken for the hummingbird. Both its size and wing movement resemble the diminutive hummingbird. It does have a long nectar sipping appendage-it is a proboscis-not a beak. Guess what? It’s not even a bird.
It’s a moth. There are those who mistakenly call it the Hummingbird Moth. Like all living things, it has a Latin name, this moth is Hyles lineata. Hyles is the genus of moth this particular moth belongs to and lineata is Latin for linear…as in lines.
The moth is the White Lined Sphinx moth. Yes, it has white lines (lineata) on its wings. Yes, it hovers and has a wing beat like the hummingbird. But it is a moth. Yes, it is furry…it almost looks like feathers…not feathers…call it insect “fur.”
Someone is asking, what is it good for? What does it do? We always want to know.
It pollinates flowers. Being a pollinator is an important job in nature. And a supersized moth like this one has a hefty appetite for plant nectar. So, these moths are active pollinators-they visit many plants, many times. It takes considerable fuel to keep a body this size in motion and filled with life till eggs are laid. This means they also mix a lot of pollen from flower to flower.
Look at the antenna. There are no knobs at the ends, notice that? Moths do not have knobs at the ends of their antenna, butterflies do.
Do you see the bumps on the end of this Painted Lady Butterfly antenna? Bumps-butterflies, no bumps, moths…
Did I say eggs? The female lays up to a 1000 of them on the underside of plant leaves. Once the eggs hatch, the White Lined Sphinx moth caterpillars begin to dine on the plants on which they were hatched. Look for a single horn on the end of the caterpillar, they are usually a stand out black and yellow.
What’s in your backyard? It may be a White Lined Sphinx moth. Have you looked? Your eyes will light up if you see one. They are marvelous. You can say mind-boggling if you want to.
Long, long proboscis…large moth, visiting many flowers, 6 feet on almost every flower…it moves a lot of pollen!
How many wing beats per minute? Some biologist has figured it out…not me.