Monday, July 25, 2016

Ah..Mother Nature, You Fooled Us!

When is a hummingbird not a hummingbird?  When it's a MOTH!  We were in the backyard the other day, when we noticed something small flitting around the Candy Cane Garden Phlox that we had planted the week before.  It was moving pretty fast, swooping in and feeding from the blossoms and flying away, only to return for another round.  It didn't seem to mind us standing around and watching it, so Jenna ran inside to grab her camera.  When we looked at the pictures later, we noticed that there were a lot more legs than you usually see on a hummingbird and there were also antennas sticking up from it's little head.  A quick Google search pointed us in the right direction.  It was actually a Hummingbird Clearwing Moth - one of two species of moth native to the Ohio valley that mimic the feeding and flight patterns of hummingbirds.  Apparently, it's a case of parallel evolution - two different types of creatures that evolve similar traits to take advantage of similar resources.  Mother Nature, you are one tricky lady!

In any case, here are some of the photos.




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