Saturday, April 11, 2009

Hummingbird Moth at Rest

Despite our best efforts and screens, we inevitably end up with some hummingbird moths in our bedroom around this time of year. Thursday night there were two; on Friday evening they came down to this lamp, where I was able to catch them and put them back outside (after a little photo shoot, of course). 

As I was taking these, suddenly the moth began to vibrate its wings like crazy (seen in photo below) and did so while staying put for a half a minute or so, prior to launching into flight. It was very interesting and loud. 




2 comments:

Continue On said...

I just happened across your blog and I love your photos! I was/am particularly interested because I'm an entomology enthusiast with little to no photographic ability of my own. At any rate, I started scanning back through your older posts and noticed your comment about the moth vibrating its wings and figured I'd offer an explanation...

They thermoregulate (in fact, quite a lot of insects do this). The moth was just warming up its muscles enough to fly. =)

Kaila said...

Thanks, Continue On! I am pleased to learn what that vibrating was all about!