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Trees- ShrubsHummingbird Hawk-moth (Macroglossum stallatarum)
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The Hummingbird Hawk-moth can be found in the family Sphingidae. Macroglossum stellatarum has a long proboscis, and regularly hovers, making an audible humming noise. These two features make it look and sound remarkably like a hummingbird when it feeds on flowers, this is a result of convergent evolution (1). The adults’ forewings are brown, with black wavy lines across them, and the hind wings are orange with a black edge. The abdomen is quite broad, with a fan-tail of setae at the end. The wingspan is between 40 and 45 mm (1). The pupae are pale brownish with a prominent, keeled proboscis, and two sharp spines at the end of the cremaster (the end of the last abdominal section) (2).
Two or more broods are produced each year. The adult may be encountered at any time of the year, especially in the south of the range, where there may be three or four broods. It overwinters as an adult in crevices among rocks, trees, and buildings. On very warm days it may emerge to feed in mid-winter (2). Larva is green or brown and feeds on bedstraws (2). Adults are particularly fond of flowers with lots of nectar (e.g. Jasminum, Buddleia, Nicotiana, Primula, Viola, Syringa, Verbena, Echium, Phlox and Stachys) (2).
They are reported to trap-line, i.e. return to the same flower beds at about the same time each day. The insect hibernates as an adult. It flies during the day, especially in bright sunshine, but also at dusk, dawn, and even in the rain (3).
It is common in gardens and it occurs almost anywhere where Galium is present in open situations, i.e. commons, field edges, roadside verges, sand-dunes, railway embankments, and even high alpine meadows over its southern range (3).
The Hummingbird Hawk-moth is distributed throughout northern Europe, Asia, and Africa from Portugal to Japan, but is resident only in warmer climates (southern Europe, North Africa, and points east). It is strongly migratory and can travel long distances. However it rarely survives the winter in northern latitudes (e.g. north of the Alps in Europe and north of the Caucasus in Russia) (4).
Description written by Lilli Lehtinen (2009)
(1) Chinery. M. (2007) Insects of Britain and Western Europe, A & C Blacks Publishers Ltd, London
(2) Pittaway. A. R. (1993) The Hawkmoths of the Western Palaearctic, Harley Books, London
(3) Macroglossum Scopoli, 1777. [online] Available:
http://tpittaway.tripod.com/sphinx/m_ste.htm [date accessed: 11/05/2009]
(4) Mt. Pelion Nature Link (2009) Hummingbird Hawk-moth [online] Available:
http://www.e-pelion.com/fauna_lepidoptera_mstellatarum.html [date accessed: 22/05/2009]
