Snowberry Clearwing Hemaris diffinis, Maryland, July 2011.
The other day, I was delighted to find my attempts at “butterfly” gardening had attracted this Snowberry Clearwing moth, Hemaris diffinis, to the front yard. This beautiful diurnal moth spent several minutes feeding at the Buddleja bushes. Not a butterfly, but definitely glad it paid a visit! Like hummingbirds, clearwings feed by hovering in front of flowers, steadying themselves with the front pair of legs while insert the proboscis into the flower. It never alighted or stopped moving, so all I could manage was this blurry photo. Around the same time last year, I remember seeing and photographing several Hummingbird Clearwings H. thysbe in the area, and even posted a blog entry about them. Here’s a photo of a Hummingbird Clearwing from last year:
Hummingbird Clearwing Hemaris thysbe, District of Columbia, August 2010.
These two species are the most common clearwing moths on the East Coast. An obvious difference between the two is the reddish tones to the wing margins and abdomen of H. thysbe. Not obvious from the photographs is that H. diffinis is also smaller. Notice also the dark stripe through the eye of the Snowberry Clearwing. There is another eastern species, Slender Clearwing H. gracilis, which is very similar to H. thysbe, but has a pale band across the top of the abdomen. A fourth species, the Rocky Mountain Clearwing, occurs in the western U.S.
