A Favorite Insect

When I was a young girl, the brother closest to me in age (not the one with which we travel to Vermont), my mother and I lived with my grandfather for a while.  Behind his house was a garden and what I remember as a very large yard (big enough to play baseball in).  In the garden, among other plants he grew phlox.  Those phlox with their sweet scent attracted many insects and humming birds much as my plants do now.  One insect in particular entranced me, and every time I saw it I would call my mother to come out and admire it with me.

We called that insect a "lobster moth"*.  Now I know that it is also know as a "humming bird moth" (his wings never stop beating and I've never seen one alight - he darts about the garden much like the humming bird) though its most correct common name is the "clearwing moth" of the family Sesiidae (no I didn't know that off the top of my head - I had to look it up!).  It still makes me smile when I see one (I don't think I've ever seen more than one at a time), and I still have to go outside to watch it.  But now I take my camera, too.  So, if you've never met one, here he is.  All four photos of him:

In this picture you can see both the moth's proboscis and his lobster-like lower abdomen with the tail flanges of that crustacean.

The lobster moth's wings don't have the scales that are usual for a moth hence the name "Clearwing".  Remember that if you want to see the picture better, just click on it and it will enlarge.

Now you can really see the proboscis.  Talk about a long straw!

And in this last photograph, you get a view of his "face".  Can you see why I enjoy this fellow so much?

*Please excuse any errors I make in naming any kind of wildlife or their body parts.  It's been a long time since I took biology (high school, actually), and I take a flying pass at research just to satisfy my curiosity without delving in over my head.