The hummingbird butterfly is a diurnal moth. A moth that can be seen especially during the day. A moth which can be recognized by its antennae. The butterfly can be seen mainly in the months of August and September; a butterfly that gulps the nectar from the flowers with rapidly moving wings and with a long roller tongue. Just like the hummingbird bird, which removes the nectar from the flower with a rapid wing beat, the butterfly also seems to ‘hang still’ in the air.
- The hummingbird butterfly
- What does the hummingbird butterfly look like?
- The Caterpillar
- Naming
The hummingbird butterfly
The hummingbird butterfly (Macroglossum stellatarum) is a moth of the pintail family (Sphingidae) and of the genus Macroglossum. The name pintail is derived from a characteristic feature of the caterpillars. The caterpillars have a hardened and colored arrow-like spine on their rear segment. The caterpillars are usually large and colorful, and the butterfly has pale variegated colors. The hummingbird butterfly is a resident butterfly in the warm regions of Southern Europe and North Africa and is a migratory butterfly in the less warm regions of the Benelux. In the summer they migrate to the north of Europe to Scandinavia and Iceland. In the Netherlands, the hummingbird butterflies are less common in normal summers than in warm summers. The butterflies fly back to southern Europe in autumn to hibernate there.
Day-active moth
The hummingbird butterfly is active during the day but can also be found flying at dusk and at night. The hummingbird butterfly in a diurnal moth. Day-active moths that fly both during the day and at night. The hummingbird butterfly mainly flies during the day. There are several moths in the Netherlands that are also active during the day. For example:
- The gamma owl
- Big Bear
- Jacobin moth
- Spanish flag
- Mint butterfly
- Yellow tiger
Antennas
A moth can be recognized by its antennae. They are wider than a butterfly or strongly feathered, club-shaped and have no bud at the end. Butterflies have a thin antennae with a thickened end that resembles a button. The wings are also used differently. The butterfly uses its wings to be warmed by the sun. The diurnal moth vibrates with its wings to warm itself up. The hummingbird butterfly does that too and is difficult to photograph. The wings always seem to vibrate like a nervous butterfly and are difficult to focus on in a photo. Except at rest, but then they are brown. Most diurnal moths lay their wings over each other on the abdomen at rest, while a butterfly has spread the wings or the butterfly holds them up above the body.
What does the hummingbird butterfly look like?
The first thing that strikes you about the hummingbird butterfly is its restless behavior. It just keep moving with the wings. Due to the speed you see a bit of orange. Usually the butterflies can be seen in August and September. The pointed brown wings have a wingspan of 40-50 millimeters. The wings consist of front and rear wings. The forewings are longer than the hindwings. Wings that go up and down so quickly when flying and foraging that they cannot be followed. The forewings that are visible as a roof on the body when at rest and have beautiful thin, wavy lines.
Horror color
The rear wings have the beautiful orange color in the wing in flight or when foraging. The horror color. If a predator sees the flying butterfly and with it the bright orange color, it is intended to be startled and the butterfly to escape. When the hummingbird butterfly sits quietly, the wings are closed and the orange scarlet color is not visible, only the brown wings. Just behind the butterfly’s head and part of the top of the forewings, the butterfly has a tuft of fairly long hair in a warm brown, grayish shade. On the underside, the hummingbird butterfly has three pairs of legs.
Big eyes
The eyes are remarkably large and round in the head of the butterfly. In the sunlight they are even green in color. They have a compound eye or facet eye. The eye consists of many hundreds of hexagonal eyes, the facets, which all point in a slightly different direction. A facet in itself has only a small field of view, but all facets, which stand in all directions together, do give a large field of view. However, the hummingbird moth cannot see clearly because they cannot adjust the lens. The antennae that are on top of the head are wire-shaped and slightly thickened at the end. There is a small lobe at the tip of the antenna, which is very difficult to see with the naked eye.
Roller tongue
The long tongue is used like a straw to suck the nectar from the flower. The tongue is a roller tongue and has a length as long as the body. At rest, the tongue is rolled up and the tongue consists of two protrusions of the lower jaw. The abdomen of the hummingbird butterfly has long hair and looks a bit like the tail feathers of a bird. They ensure that the body can stay in the air. The abdomen has beautiful black spots reminiscent of a checkerboard fly. The hummingbird butterfly produces an audible buzzing sound.
The Caterpillar
The female butterfly deposits eggs from which the caterpillars appear in May to October. The eggs are green and shiny, and they are deposited one by one on the host plant. Most preferred for the host plant is all types of bedstraw. This used to be madder too. The caterpillars feed on the host plant and molt to pupa until the last molt. After several molts, the caterpillar is large, hairless and green with white specks. On both sides of the top, there is a white stripe that is white on one side but turns more yellow towards the other side of the body. On the abdomen is a tail spine to scare enemies.
The spine is blue with a striking yellow color at the end. The caterpillar becomes a pupa and the pupa a hummingbird butterfly. The duration from egg to butterfly lasts a few months.
Naming
The name has to do with the bird, the hummingbird. The hummingbird also has a very fast wing beat. The spine on the end of the caterpillar body of the hummingbird butterfly also resembles a pointed arrow, making the group of butterflies with a spine part of the family of pintails. The scientific genus name Macroglossum means tongue and glossus is long, long tongue. The species name stellatarum refers to the plant madder (Rubiaceae) that used to belong to the most important host plant and why the butterfly is also called madder butterfly in some parts of the Netherlands. In England the butterfly is called hummingbird hawk-moth or hummingmoth, which means ‘buzzing butterfly’.