No, seriously, it's a moth. The Snowberry Clearwing (Hemaris diffinis) is a moth. That looks like a hummingbird. That looks like a bee. You would think he'd be having some kind of identity crisis nervous breakdown, but no, he's just flitting about without a care in the world. Drinking nectar with his long curly tongue.
The Snowberry Clearwing's favorite food is obviously snowberry, but on our farm he was most likely dining on related honeysuckles, thistle, cherry and plum nectar. In the video he's drinking from the flowers of our butterfly bush.
They're fairly widespread in North America, although predominantly in the West and only commonly found in a few counties in Georgia. They start their life cycle as tiny, round, green eggs before they transform into green caterpillars with one big black horn apiece, right on their butts. When the caterpillars are fully grown they spin a cocoon in the leaf litter and transform again. Whatever stage of life they're in, be it green egg, green caterpillar, cocoon or bumble bee hummingbird moth thing, they're always welcome on the Gohn farm!
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