Taiji Donkey Lao Dong August 27, 2016,
Revised on October 2, 2018
Spring, summer and autumn are the seasons for looking for and photographing insects, as well as for finding and photographing hummingbird moths (long-beaked moths).
The Hummingbird Moth (Macroglossum stellatarum) is an insect in the genus Long-beaked Moth in the family Lepidoptera. Hummingbird moths have several aliases: long-beaked moth, bean long-beaked moth, hummingbird moth, hummingbird eagle moth, hummingbird butterfly moth.
(This is the state of the hummingbird moth when it rests at night.)
Because the long-beaked moth is very similar in appearance, flight speed and feeding method to hummingbirds when flying, biologists call this moth "hummingbird moth".
The two are difficult to distinguish between the two when flying, and because hummingbirds are famous, some people think they have seen hummingbirds when they see hummingbird moths that hover over and suck.
Hummingbird moths have peculiar biological characteristics: "Moths are not like moths, like butterflies are not butterflies, like bees are not bees, like birds are not birds", so they are called the "four unlikes" of insects.
Moths are not like moths: moths are nocturnal and diurnal ~ nocturnal activities, hummingbird moths are nocturnal diurnal ~ daytime activities, adults of other moths have a short lifespan, and adult hummingbird moths have a long lifespan and can overwinter.
Like a butterfly is not a butterfly: there is a long beak tube like a butterfly, the tip is expanded with antennae, and like a butterfly, it lies out at night, is active during the day, and flies faster than a butterfly.
Like a bee is not a bee: picking flowers without carrying powder, picking honey without making honey,
Like a bird is not a bird: unlike a bird, hummingbird moths can move forward or backward when they hover and fly.
Hummingbird moths are widely distributed, and there are also hummingbird moths in Shenzhen.
In September 2014, when the sky was just dark in the early morning, I happened to see an insect that I had never seen on the ground of the original Yihai City sales office near the seaside boardwalk in Yantian District. Came back to inquire and learned that it was a "hummingbird moth (long-beaked moth)",
Hummingbird moth (long-beaked moth) is 4 to 5 cm long, the body is tan, and there are gray-yellow stripes in the middle of the wings,
Hummingbird moths are similar in appearance and difficult to distinguish.
Later, a hummingbird moth was seen sucking nectar in flight in the green belt of the waterfront boardwalk, but without a camera.
Living in Shenzhen for more than 20 years, or the first time to see the hummingbird moth, query the data to learn: hummingbird moth is the insect of the four different, really did not expect that there are such strange insects around, so also began to pay attention to observe the search for hummingbird moth, want to photograph its flying and sucking posture.
On July 20, 2016, photographing butterflies in a flower bush at the Wutong Shanxi Pit Management Station, I suddenly heard a buzzing sound, and the sound search was a fast-flying tan insect, like a large wasp, which traveled back and forth in the flower bush, sometimes hovering over the flowers, stretching out a slender beak tube to suck nectar, hovering for only a few seconds, feeling that it might be a bee moth, immediately picked up the camera to take multiple photos, came back to download to get two slightly clearer photos, and sure enough, it was a strange "hummingbird moth".
(July 20, 2016)
The hummingbird moth that hovered over the white-flowered ghost needle grass flower and sucked on the nectar, completed the pollination.
When hummingbird moths fly in the air to suck nectar, the time is short, the speed is very difficult to shoot, and it is even more difficult to see the halal appearance.
(July 20, 2016)
After photographing the hummingbird moth in flight for the first time, I had the experience of spotting hummingbird moths, and since then I have seen and photographed hummingbird moths in many places.
In the early morning of June 26, 2017, a hummingbird moth (long-beaked moth) was found on the border silk net of the Sha Tau Kok to Liantang Winding Mountain Highway, its two antennae retracted and placed behind the head, with a layer of fluff on the body, the tail was a bit like a brush, it seemed to be still sleeping, maybe the dew at night wet the fluff on the body, and it was necessary to wait for the sun to rise, the body was dry and the hummingbird moth could take off to look around for nectar.
Hummingbird moths, which look clumsy when lying still, are very agile and fast when flying.
(June 26, 2017)
Later, he brought a ruler to measure the diamond-shaped frame of the barbed wire, and it was learned that the hummingbird moth was about 4.5 cm long, and the literature introduced that the hummingbird moth had a wingspan of 5 to 6 cm.
On sunny days, hummingbird moths can often be seen looking for nectar in the five-colored plums and white-flowered ghost needle grasses along this winding road.
It is not easy to see hummingbird moths frequently, because there is rarely a fixed white-flowered ghost needle grass lawn for hummingbird moths to collect honey in urban areas, hummingbird moths are relatively few, and often 1 to 2 individual activities, the body is very small (wingspan of 5 to 6 cm), the flight speed is particularly fast, so it is a difficult insect to find, because the flight is almost non-stop and it is difficult to shoot insects.
If you look at them in places with flowers, bees, and butterflies, you can find them, hear the hum of flight, and see the brown figure flying fast, which may be a hummingbird moth.
According to Baidu: Hummingbird moths fly with a high frequency of wings, up to 70 times per second, and can also make stunts such as hovering and regressing, and the flying skills of hovering in the air to suck nectar are breathtaking and not tired of watching. When you see the small body of the hummingbird moth hovering in the air with a slender beak tube inserted into the core of the flower, and then changing another flower in a few seconds, you will feel the strangeness of this insect and the beauty of nature.
(September 5, 2018)
Hummingbird moths produce 2 or more clutches of eggs per year, and the larvae of hummingbird moths are fat, white, with a small black head, and feed on the leaves of pigs (Lara vine, eight immortal grass).
Larvae and adults are completely different in body form and living habits.
Hummingbird moths have a cocoon habit, and adults have a long lifespan and can overwinter.
To protect insects such as hummingbird moths, it is necessary to protect their living environment, that is, to protect the food source of adult insects ~ white-flowered ghost needle grass, honeysuckle, etc.; but also to protect the plants that lay eggs for larvae to parasitize the pigs of the genus Madder Kolara vine (Lara vine, eight immortal grass) and other plants.
In particular, pesticides should not be sprayed on these wild flowers and plants.
Hummingbird moths have a close relative - coffee-transfigured moth, similar in size, the difference is that the wings are transparent, the front of the body is grass blue, the middle is purple, the posterior apricot yellow, the tail hair bush is black, better than the tan long-beaked moth; the coffee-penetrating moth is slower than the long-beaked moth, and it is not completely hovering when sucking nectar, but using two forefoots on the flowers to stabilize the body, so it is better to shoot than the long-beaked moth.
Baidu introduction: Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan, Jiangsu, Shandong, Beijing and other places, there are records of hummingbird moths, but they are all accidental encounters, because there is no place where hummingbird moths often feed.
To see hummingbird moths frequently, it is necessary to find a place where hummingbird moths often feed, or to cultivate a place where hummingbird moths can feed.
Different wild animals have different living environments, so protecting the diversity of the ecological environment and maintaining the integrity of the food chain of wild animals can protect the diversity of biological species and maintain the balance of the ecosystem.
Green water and green mountains contain a variety of ecological environments and a variety of biological species, so green water and green mountains are golden mountains and silver mountains.
The protection of wild animals and plants is an ecological environmental protection public welfare activity, paying time and energy, harvesting a good mood, and it is happy to see that wild animals and plants and the ecological environment have been protected.
End