The hummingbird hawk-moth is, to be honest, a freaky looking thing. For a start it’s a day-flyer and secondly its wee little wings flap so fast they’re nothing but a blur. Hovering as it does, it looks just like a very small hummingbird, hence the name. Its stripy arse looks like it’s been tacked on as an afterthought – the Tasmanian Tiger of the moth world. Except not extinct.
My brother Tony rang up today, to say that the hummingbird hawk-moth that’s been visiting his honeysuckle was back, so Dad and I popped over there with the video camera to see if we could get this weird little beastie on film. Course, soon as we turned up the bugger disappeared. Sod’s law. Eventually, though it did come back and it was worth the wait.
I’ve had a soft spot for moths since I was a wee sproglet. Dad did an Open University course when I was little, Science 101 or something. One of his projects was to trap moths every night and do a census. I was somewhere around 10 at the time and religiously helped him out with it. (I can’t remember exactly how old I was – I was too young to yet have mental landmarks as to what year it was, so can’t have been that old.)
Some of the moths we caught were beautiful. I was really taken by them. I’ve loved moths ever since, specially the big furry ones.
Anyway, Dad videoed the moth whilst I stood there agog at it. If we can capture some stills, I’ll post them.
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