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Ron Lutz II | all galleries >> Pennsylvania >> Seasonal Pennsylvania >> Pennsylvania in Summer > 07-30-2005
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30-JUL-2005 Ron Lutz II

07-30-2005

Moraine State Park, PA

While running errands I took a detour down a little used road in my favorite park. I stopped the jeep to walk along with my macro lens, looking to take photos of flowers and possibly insects. I lucked out and found a feeding insect that is about the size of a small humming bird and flies like one. I will need to find out the name from our invertebrate zoology guys soon.

Canon EOS 10D ,Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro
1/750s f/8.0 at 100.0mm iso400 full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto
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Jo 20-Apr-2007 15:37
This is an insect I have observed during the summer and autumn months here in southern Spain. It appears often at the end of the day and hovers around my purple buganvillea. It is definately a humming-bird look alike.
Ron Lutz II01-Sep-2005 14:47
This is the email I recieved from our science department here:

"Ron, a thousand pardons on may late response, although I was out of the country all summer until 23 August.

What you have photographed is the adult moth Hemaris thysbe (Hummingbird Clearwing). Its habit of hovering in front of flowers (usually tubular type flowers) to suck nectar is the reason for its common name. We receive several phone calls a year from the local public with eyewitness reports of this hummingbird mimic. If you position yourself around a large patch of flowering shrubs (e.g. Rhododendron) for a couple of hours you should see many of them. The adults may be flying around from April through August. For a photograph of the caterpillar of this moth see the following website: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/2000/cateast/hemathys.htm

Great shot by the way. I just bought my first digital camera this spring. They are too much fun, man. Send more pictures if you got'em. Dave"
Teresa 01-Aug-2005 22:03
it is a sphinx moth. lovely photo
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