Subject: Hummingbird Hawkmoth
From: "Roger The Rabbit"
Date: 25/09/03 22:00 Romance Daylight Time
Message-id:


http://www.rspb.org.uk/birds/advice/...mingbirds_rife
_in_our_countryside.asp

In case anyone's interested, I had the good fortune to see one of these the
other days - acting completely like a Hummingbird! It had me fooled for a
while - it looks a lot more like one in real life, even down to the way it
flies!


Hi
Over here in Brittany it has been a particularly good year for Hummingbird
Hawkmoths and there have been literally dozens in my garden, darting about and
visiting almost every blossom. (As I had won the local "Maison Fleurie"
competition I suppose they had come in for a look,) However only a few days ago
I saw a couple of absolute whoppers out at night. Each was about 3-4 inches
long (not counting the proboscis) and with a comparable wingspan and each
seemed to have a striped black and white abdomen. As I could only see them by
my outside light and have never seen such large ones during the day I suppose
these will have a nocternal variety og the Giant hummingbird Hawkmoth. Quite
impressive.
Phil