Hummingbird Moth

[Astronuc]

Some pictures from my backyard.  We planted some 'butterfly bushes' and the butterflies started showing up.  And we had visit from a couple of hummingbird moths.

[Astronuc]

Two more shots of the humminbird moth on the flowers of a butterfly bush.   The butterfly bushes with the bright pink/purple flowers are buddleia davidii (one is 'Attraction' and the other is 'Purple Nanho').  Both are have very pungent aroma.

See - Buddleia davidii - Butterfly Bush, Butterfly-bush, or Summer Lilac

http://www.floridata.com/ref/b/budd_dav.cfm

http://www.rubythroat.org/BushButterflyMain.html

http://www.jacksonsnurseries.co.uk/Shrubs-BuddleiaDavidiiEmpireBlue.htm - Even have them in the UK!

Buddleia davidii 'Black Knight' We almost got one, but being the end of the season, they weren't in good shape, so we passed.

Butterfly bushes are great for attracting butterflies and certain moths.

 

[Astronuc]

The Royal Red buddleia is our newest butterfly bush, and within an hour of placing it in the yard, we had a visitor.

Before we planted the buddleia, we would never see the butterfly moth, and the swallow tails were infrequent visitors.  Now we see them quite often.

I missed an opportunity to catch a photo black swallowtail two days ago.

[Patty]

Hi Astronuc,

I thought of your moths today as I found yet another tomato hornworm on my plants.  (That makes four in the last two days.)

I don't kill them (I love lepidoptera too much) but they sure are gnarly caterpillars.  I think tomato hornworms turn into one of the slightly-less-pretty sphinx moths, with less color than your hummingbird moth shows. I put them near a volunteeer tomato plant that I don't plan to harvest from anyway.

(We also found another monarch caterpillar, which we have on our kitchen counter now. I plan to let it pupate inside and either take it to the college when I substitute teach in a  few weeks, or display it at the butterfly garden at the community garden for the kids to enjoy. You can stage monarch pupae if you refrigerate them just as their wing colors are beginning to show through the pupa case, and have eclosure pretty much on demand.)

[Astronuc]

We rarely see Monarchs, but they do show up.

Please take pictures of the hornworm and Monarch pupa! 

 

[Charity]

The Hummingbird moth is really sweet! I have never seen one befor. They must be quite rare?

[Astronuc]

We didn't see hummingbird moths until we planted the Butterfly bushes (Buddleia davidii), and then they started showing up.  We have had maybe up to 5 or 6 visiting our garden at one time.

We saw them at a nursery and gardening center which is about 20 miles north of our location.  They were on several butterfly bushes, and I think we bought one of them.  We shop at different places in order to get a variety of plants.

I'll post some more pictures soon.  I need to start a thread on butterfly bushes.   
Check out the links in my second post in this thread.

We did buy a 'Black Night' and it has really cool dark purple flowers.

 

[Patty]

I hope to never see the hornworm again    though I routinely find the pupae when I am turning soil in the spring. They hibernate over winter and are unmistakeable. Also, if you have tomatoes or tobacco (anything in the nicotiana family) you can tempt any of these larger moths to lay eggs.

The monarch is hanging in a J now and I hope to post a few pictures when I get my applepics or other photo account set up.

If you are in a warm area as I suspect, you should grow Passiflora caerula. I can send you one, if you like. You will have Gulf Fritillaries gracing your yard many months of the year if you do this! They nectar on the flowers and the larvae grow on the leaves. I plan to post pictures of that as well.

Yours,
patty

[Astronuc]

This seems to be a different type of hummingbird moth, with dark band around the upper abdomen.

[Patty]

Hi again!

We do have Buddleia, but I have never watched for the hummingbird moths. I'll keep an eye open.

I found a link with some good info about the whol family:

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05517.html

...including info about larval host plants. You may be able to find caterpillars on some of these plants - if they happen to be in your yard.

I'll add some photos of the monarchs for you!