Talk:Hummingbird hawk-moth

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 3 April 2019 and 7 June 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Cebuscapucinus. Peer reviewers: Honggglee.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 00:03, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Sightings

I saw a humming bird hawk moth in Weatherford Texas!!! Isn't that weird? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.27.1.70 (talk) 15:03, 26 September 2011 (UTC)

hello i have just seen 3 humming bird hawk moths in boxford suffolk england —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.67.13.217 (talk) 19:26, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

• /Sightings -- Off-topic discussion on sightings.

I think I have seen a Hummingbird Hawk -Moth in Northern New Jersey 9/Aug/2008 Stephen Mazzella —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.115.112.183 (talk) 02:55, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

I have one of these around daily, after my flowers..Southwestern West Virginia 6/23/2009 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.248.249.148 (talk) 22:33, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

I think I can clear up the confusion here. I found out that, apparently, strong winds blow them all over the place, causing them to end up in even Alaska. Should this be added, to help explain sightings outside of its normal range? Icalasari (talk) 22:47, 29 September 2009 (UTC)

I saw one in Estes Park Colorado! http://www.flickr.com/photos/hennamoon/3976913039/ —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mevysmoon (talk • contribs) 18:28, 3 October 2009 (UTC)

• the dangers of using vernacular names is well proven. The Estes Park sighting is of Hyles lineata HKmoths (talk) 14:53, 3 May 2010 (UTC)

 I have a hummuingbird moth in my flowers everyday..Steinbach Manitoba Canada June 2012

evbergen @hotmail.com — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.215.49.95 (talk) 16:50, 8 June 2012 (UTC)

I saw one feeding in my front yard on 13 July 2017 in Marlton, New Jersey — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:88:8003:2B6A:0:0:0:DFCB (talk) 12:59, 14 July 2017 (UTC)

There is one currently visiting out flowers in northwestern PA 24.144.136.176 (talk) 19:15, 25 July 2023 (UTC)

Photos

I have two photos of what I presume are a hummingbird hawk-moth at http://saqataq.us/pics/20050729/4.html and http://saqataq.us/pics/20050729/5.html .. Would either of these be useful for the article? Note that the originals are 8MP images and so can be cropped quite a bit while retaining quality that's good enough for viewing via the web. Radsaq 23:09, 25 August 2005 (UTC)

Have been watching these little creatures in Kansas, US, for about the last three weeks. Not afraid of people. Mine have more color to them than the pictures though. The antene are bright yellow with red, yellow, and black wings and a striped colored back but other than the color they look just like the pictures.

Hi - I have been watching two hummingbird hawk-moths in my garden at Islesteps, Dumfries, S W Scotland they are exactly the same as your picture - and are stunning to watch - a real treat. Has anybody else seen these creatures in this area? Lynford 6 August 2010 Leosmum (talk) 23:21, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

I live in pullman mi And i have a a lot of hummingbird moths in my flower beds and i love seeing them every year i was told that they are not sumpost to be here in the states will here is some pictures i took in my yard Tinybeen (talk) 15:20, 10 August 2020 (UTC)

Major editing needed

There are so many things wrong with this article I don't know where to start. I don't know what to DO! I WAS going to edit it but figured I'd post here first and then if nobody replied in a couple of days I'd edit it myself.... first, the term hummingbird moth doesn't just refer to one species, as there are many (Hemaris thysbe, Hemaris gracilis, Hemaris diffinis, Hemaris senta, etc). Secondly, I don't think that particular species (Macroglossum stellatarum) is even considered a hummingbird moth. Thirdly, the pictures don't match with the description, and are in fact another species (the second one anyway). This is what the real Macroglossum stellatarum lokos like: [[http://www.ybis.at/natur/tiere/schmbild/Pa180548.jpg . I didn't even check to see if the general facts were right... but there's definately some editing needed here! --TheAlphaWolf 22:37, 5 November 2005 (UTC) well, I decided to delete the second picture now :P --TheAlphaWolf 22:40, 5 November 2005 (UTC)

Hi! I agree there are problems with this article, mainly caused by good old transatlantic confusion I think! Macroglossum stellatarum is the Hummingbird Hawk-moth to we Brits and I'm fairly sure the remaining pic does depict this species. We call Hemaris spp "Bee Hawk-moths". It's all a bit of a tangle which is probably why I have avoided trying to sort it out. I think more than one article is required but what they are going to be called I have no idea. Any thoughts? Richard Barlow 15:32, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

aha! so that's why. Well, I was thinking maybe there should be a disambiguation page where hummingbird moth, hummingbird hawk-moth, bee hawk-moth etc. lead and then each one with its own article. That way if you search for any of those, you realize why they invented scientific names :-P --TheAlphaWolf 00:43, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

Sounds like a good idea. I'm going to be pretty busy over the next couple of weeks but I'll try to sort something when I can. If you want to give it a go, be my guest :) Richard Barlow 10:02, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

• Instead of dismbiguation, let's refer to them by their scientific names. End of confusion. Satyrium 18:29, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

I think this transatlantic confusion brings up another good point, this article hast a strong European Bias, and has no mention of Hummingbird Moths in North or South America. Aufs klo 15:22, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

• Well, here we are nearly a year later, and the article still lacks any reference to these critters existing in the Americas. 72.228.82.154 12:48, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

• I've changed the range, since it's not listed here and there is no other ref. Jimfbleak 06:25, 7 August 2007 (UTC)
  • US was added to the range, but still unsourced, so reverted again. Jimfbleak 14:57, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

• • Apparently (a quick google says... bottom of this page) there was one record of the species in the Aleutian Islands from sometime between the '30s and '50s. Essentially the species' distribution does not include North America, so the hummingbird moths that people keep claiming should be in this article are actually other species, not M. stellatarum. As far as a drastic re-write goes, this article is the next on my list for a translation from the German, which is featured. I still have about a third of the Onychophora article left to do first, so it might be a little while coming, but I'm working on it. --YFB ¿ 23:46, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Although this article is relatively short, I think it covers the general information well. A simple improvement to this article would be to add details in the lead by giving a brief description of the moth's appearance and its classification. To better understand the moth's survival, a section on why resembling hummingbirds would be advantageous and how convergent evolution played a role could be beneficial. Catejiang (talk) 04:19, 14 September 2017 (UTC)

TMBG

bee bird moth —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.59.210.63 (talk) 04:50, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Distribution

Is there another reference for distribution of this species? [1] suggests that the species does not reach Japan, and their map could be used to elaborate the distribution section... Thanks—GRM (talk) 21:38, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes, I was also wondering (albeit, not in 2008) about distribution. I've seen hawk moths that hover like hummingbirds in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Are these completely different? They seemto me to have been the same thing - yet the distribution maps doesn't include the tropics. Francis Hannaway (talk) 17:10, 20 July 2014 (UTC)

Lifespan

Could someone add a note describing how long these insects live? Since they overwinter, I assume they live to be at least one year, but more information would be welcome. -- Eiríkr Útlendi | Tala við mig 16:14, 7 October 2011 (UTC)

POTY Candidacy

Given that one of the images embedded in the body of the article is a Picture of the Year finalist for 2012, should it be moved up to be the primary photo for this page? --The Human Spellchecker (talk) 19:47, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

Please move this page to a less colloquial name

Hummingbird hawk-moth is a common name for the entire family. Please move this page to the scientific name or something more specific. I came back to this page three times trying to find information on Macroglossum, only to eventually realize I wasn't being re-directed to the family page, but that this page is erroneously named. This is the equivalent of labeling a page called Bumblebee as a specific species of bee rather than the broader group. --71.113.232.120 (talk) 10:49, 12 February 2015 (UTC)

Peer review by Honglee

You wrote a very good and detailed life cycle description. The first citation is very relevant to the content of the statement made: research cited about activity pattern and thermal biology of a day-flying hawkmoth under summer condition. You can write more about hummingbird hawk-moth physiological changes based on this research paper. You can also create more links within the body of the article. The second citation might not be very relevant to the description of the behavior of Hummingbird hawk-moths since the review paper mostly explored the types of proboscis of Lepidoptera. However, I think the research field about Hummingbird hawk-moth is still primitive, using this review paper as a reference would still be fine. Also, reference #2, and #5 has a date format that are different from the rest of references. You might want to make the format uniform. Also, I think you can find more paper about their behaviors or any physiological changes in different seasons to expand on the "Behavior" Section, (although I understand it's very hard to find). "In culture" section might not be that necessary to be included in the article, but if you want to keep it, I suggest on expanding this section since it's a very interesting aspect. You can search to see if Hummingbird hawk-moths acts as any symbols in other cultures beside being viewed as "lucky". Honggglee (talk) 21:20, 30 May 2019 (UTC)Honggglee (talk) 21:31, 30 May 2019 (UTC)

Response to peer review

Cebuscapucinus (talk) 22:01, 30 May 2019 (UTC) Hi Hong,

Thank you so much for your helpful feedback! I've added a paragraph into the behavior section all about vision. I haven't been able to find much more about culture, but will continue my search and add more as you suggested. Thanks again!

Alana Cebuscapucinus (talk) 22:01, 30 May 2019 (UTC)

Featured picture scheduled for POTD

Hello! This is to let editors know that File:Hummingbird hawk_moth_(Macroglossum_stellatarum)_in_flight.jpg, a featured picture used in this article, has been selected as the English Wikipedia's picture of the day (POTD) for September 17, 2023. A preview of the POTD is displayed below and can be edited at Template:POTD/2023-09-17. For the greater benefit of readers, any potential improvements or maintenance that could benefit the quality of this article should be done before its scheduled appearance on the Main Page. If you have any concerns, please place a message at Wikipedia talk:Picture of the day. Thank you!  — Amakuru (talk) 11:30, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

The hummingbird hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum) is a species of hawk moth found across temperate regions of Eurasia, from Portugal to Japan. Its long proboscis (25–28 mm; 0.98–1.10 in) and its hovering behavior, accompanied by an audible humming noise, give it a resemblance to the hummingbird. Like hummingbirds, it feeds on flowers which have tube-shaped corollae; this is an example of convergent evolution. The hummingbird hawk-moth flies during the day, especially in bright sunshine, but also at dusk, dawn, and even in the rain, which is unusual for even diurnal hawkmoths. It engages in free hovering flight, which allows more maneuverability and control than fixed-wing flight, despite high energetic cost. This hummingbird hawk-moth in flight was photographed near Yastrebets in Rila, a mountain range in Bulgaria.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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Habitat regions

You say this moth is only in the Eurasian continent but it is throughout north America as well 174.126.28.119 (talk) 05:24, 25 September 2023 (UTC)

Dayflying moths like this are found both in Eurasia and North America. The ones with transparent areas on their wings, mimicking bumblebees, are known in England as "bee hawk moths"; they are found in Europe and North America.

The one with grey forewings and orange hindwings is known in England as "the hummingbird hawk moth". This one is not found in North America.

See for example Charles VV Covell 1968 A field guide to the moths of eastern North America (Houghton Mifflin)

Foiled circuitous wanderer (talk) 14:50, 27 September 2023 (UTC)

Just seen a Hummingbird Hawk Moth in the south coast in Fareham, England (south coast). Never seen one before in the 60 yrs that I have been gardening. Beautiful sight. 86.164.113.63 (talk) 11:49, 9 October 2023 (UTC)

Nice observation. They are lovely little animals. Keep watching. Foiled circuitous wanderer (talk) 14:02, 9 October 2023 (UTC)