Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Hemaris thysbe may be found as far north as Alaska and the North­west Ter­ri­to­ries. In the con­ti­nen­tal United States, Hemaris thysbe they occur west to Ore­gon. They are most com­mon in the east­ern part of the United States, and as far south as Florida and Texas. (Lawrence, 1999)

• Biogeographic Regions
• nearctic
  • native

Habi­tat

The most com­mon habi­tats for Hemaris thysbe in­clude cul­ti­vated flower gar­dens, mead­ows, and for­est edges. Hum­ming­bird moths can fly long dis­tances and are mi­gra­tory. Only a few are able to cross desert re­gions be­cause the scarcity of food and water. Their flight pe­riod is from May to Sep­tem­ber. (Holzberg, 1999)

• Terrestrial Biomes
• forest

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

The av­er­age wing span of hum­ming­bird moths range from 4 to 5.5 cm. In adults, the wings are ini­tially dark red to al­most black. After their first flight how­ever, some of the scales fall off, leav­ing clear spots with no scales. Thus, the wings are typ­i­cally clear with a red­dish to brown color bor­der. The forewing cell has a me­dial row of scales and a dark mar­gin. The body is spin­dle shaped and varies in color from olive green to red­dish-brown. These moths lack the tym­pana pos­sessed by most other moths. Their an­ten­nae are thick­ened from the base out­ward, usu­ally to the mid­dle only, and curved at the end. The larva are yel­low­ish-green with darker green lines and red­dish brown to dark brown.

(Struttmann, 1999)

• Other Physical Features
• ectothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Average mass

  3 g

  0.11 oz

Re­pro­duc­tion

Dur­ing win­ter, the lar­vae bur­row in the soil and over­win­ter as hard-shelled, brown pupae. In May or June, hum­ming­bird moths emerge from the pupae. They then de­posit spher­i­cal green eggs on the un­der­sides of leaves (usu­ally of host plants). A week later, the lar­vae hatch and feed on fruit and leaves. Four weeks later, they are fully de­vel­oped. Pu­pa­tion oc­curs in the soil, and adults emerge 2 to 4 weeks later to lay a sec­ond gen­er­a­tion of eggs. (Lawrence, 1999)

Be­hav­ior

The courtship be­hav­ior of hawk moths is very com­plex. It often in­v­oles pheromones, love songs and aer­o­batic flights. This type of be­hav­ior has been noted in the cream-lined hawk moth from Asia, and is cur­rently being stud­ied in the North Amer­i­can species. How­ever, many dif­fer­ent hawk moths, such as the ocel­late hawk moth, also found in Asia, do not have these be­hav­iors. Rather, they tend to have broader wings and fly more clum­sily. They have no tongues, do not feed as adults, and show lit­tle courtship be­hav­iour. (Kitch­ing, 1999)

Food Habits

Hum­ming­bird moths have a pro­boscis used to suck nec­tar from flow­ers. They feed from a va­ri­ety of flow­ers, in­clud­ing hon­ey­suckle, bee­balm, lilac, snow­berry and cran­berry. They hover above the flow­ers and are often mis­taken for hum­ming­birds. Their cater­pil­lars feed on a va­ri­ety of hosts, in­clud­ing hon­ey­suckle, snow­berry, hawthorns, cher­ries and plums. (Nichol­son, 1999)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Hum­ming­bird moths have lit­tle or no eco­nomic im­por­tance to hu­mans. They are pol­li­na­tors of some flow­ers, in­clud­ing the dune prim­rose. (Nichol­son, 1999)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Lar­vae of the closely re­lated sphinx moth, called horn­worms, are pests to to­bacco and tomato plants as they of­ten­times feed on them.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

This species is not cur­rently con­sid­ered threat­ened on the state, fed­eral, or global level.

• IUCN Red List

  No special status

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Other Com­ments

Hum­ming­bird moths are also known as white-lined sphinx moths. When the cater­pil­lars are threat­ened they as­sume a po­si­tion that re­sem­bles the Sphinx mon­u­ment of Egypt. How­ever, since they re­sem­ble hum­ming­birds, they are more com­monly known as hum­ming­bird moths. The sound of their beat­ing wings is like that of hum­ming­birds. (Holzberg, 1999)

There is very lit­tle pub­lished about this species. Hum­ming­bird moths are not read­ily stud­ied and many things about them, such as their re­pro­duc­tive habits and be­hav­ioral pat­terns, are yet to be fully un­der­stood. (Holzberg and Carol, No­vem­ber 1999)

Con­trib­u­tors

Katie Drury (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, Phil Myers (ed­i­tor), Mu­seum of Zo­ol­ogy, Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

Holzberg, , Carol. No­vem­ber 1999. Mon­archs, moths and more. Tech­nol­ogy and Learn­ing, 4: 4-46.

Kitch­ing, I. 1999. "Evo­lu­tion Bi­ol­ogy of Hawk Moths" (On-line). Ac­cessed March 21, 1999 at http://​www.​nhm.​ac.​uk/​science/​entom/​project5/​index.​html.

Lawrence, C. 1997. Early ap­pear­ance of Macroglos­sum stel­latarum. En­to­mol­o­gist's Record & Jour­nal of Vari­a­tion, 109: 7-8.

Nichol­son, , Rob. May 1999. The Black­est Flower in the world. Nat­ural His­tory, 4: 60-63.

Struttmann, , Jane. 1999. Ac­cessed March 12, 2000 at http://​www.​npwrc.​usgs.​gov/​resource/​distr/​lepid/​moths/​ri/​1063.​htm.