Hummingbird hawk-moth
The hummingbird hawk-moth hovers in front of flowers and hums, just like a tiny hummingbird. It has brown front wings, orange back wings and a fluffy fan-shaped tail. It flies in the daytime, even in bright sunshine.
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Fun facts
Its tongue is about 25 to 28 millimetres long, longer than its whole body.
It flies in the sun, at dusk, at dawn and even in the rain, which is unusual for a moth.
It is very good at learning colours and finds its flowers mostly by looking.
It lays its tiny green eggs on bedstraw plants, where they look just like the plant's flower buds.
It spends the winter as a grown-up moth, hiding in cracks in rocks, trees or buildings.
Most asked questions about Hummingbird hawk-moth
?Is it a hummingbird or a moth?
It is a moth. It only looks and sounds like a hummingbird when it hovers at flowers.
?What does the hummingbird hawk-moth eat?
It drinks nectar from tube-shaped flowers like honeysuckle and red valerian.
?How big is the hummingbird hawk-moth?
Its wings are about 4 to 4.5 centimetres from tip to tip.
Myth buster
Myth: It is a little hummingbird.
Truth: No. It is a moth. It just hovers and hums at flowers like a hummingbird. In Europe there are no wild hummingbirds at all.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Macroglossum stellatarum
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Sphingidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Sphingidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, Africa
Where the facts come from
- Hummingbird hawk-moth (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Charles J. Sharp. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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