Re: humming bird moth photo

"rw" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Keith Edkins wrote:
> > "rw" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> > news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >
> >>Here's a link to what I think is a decent photo of a humming bird moth
> >>feeding on the Lobelia in my garden.
> >>
> >>  http://home.earthlink.net/~royalwulff/web/DCP_0865.JPG
> >>
> >>It's approximately life size on my monitor. What a cool bug.
> >>
> >
> >
> > Decent photo, but not a humming bird moth (Macroglossum stellatarum).
Surely
> > it's a Striped Hawk-moth (Hyles livornica) - a scarcer migrant, but
seems to
> > be having quite a good year.
> > http://cgi.ukmoths.force9.co.uk/show.php?id=884
> > http://www.migrantmoth.com/newsletter03a.htm
> > http://www.leps.it/SpeciesPages/HylesLivor.htm
> >
> > Keith Edkins
> >
> >
> >
> >
> Keith Edkins wrote:
>
>
> --
> Check out the "new ROFF portraits" link on the 2003 ROFF calendar:
>
http://home.earthlink.net/~royalwulff/ROFF/calendar/2003/ROFF_2003_calendar.
html
> > "rw" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> > news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >
> >>Here's a link to what I think is a decent photo of a humming bird moth
> >>feeding on the Lobelia in my garden.
> >>
> >>  http://home.earthlink.net/~royalwulff/web/DCP_0865.JPG
> >>
> >>It's approximately life size on my monitor. What a cool bug.
> >>
> >
> >
> > Decent photo, but not a humming bird moth (Macroglossum stellatarum).
Surely
> > it's a Striped Hawk-moth (Hyles livornica) - a scarcer migrant, but
seems to
> > be having quite a good year.
>
> After a little more research, I'm pretty sure it was a White-lined
> Sphinx Moth, Hyles lineata.
>
> http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/lepid/moths/usa/1066.htm
>
> It's looks (to my untrained eye) pretty much like your Hyles livornica,
> but I can't find any reference for that species in the western US.
>

Sorry, I had taken yours to be a British posting - because there have been a
number of recent sightings here of the hummer, normally a scrace vagrant,
and of the striped, normally even scarcer.

H. lavornica (Old World) has often been classified as a sub-species of
H.lineata (New World), but opinion seems to be settling on two separate
species. For a US sighting H.lineata will be correct.

Keith