Sunday, May 04, 2008

Hummingbird Moth



A close-up of a Hummingbird Clearwing Moth reveals the long proboscis curled up into a convenient travel position.

Today as I followed some yellow and black swallowtail butterflies around our lilac bush I encountered this interesting little moth. It showed a clear preference for the shaded areas which made it difficult to obtain correct exposure while using a shutter speed fast enough to capture the image. Finally I settled on ISO 800 and captured this image at 1/640th of a second with an aperture of F5.6 and a 400mm focal length.
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11 comments:

  1. ShiongeSun May 04, 09:00:00 PM EDT

    First time I see this Salty and very very interesting indeed :D

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  2. photowannabeSun May 04, 10:45:00 PM EDT

    Your nature shots areso interesting. I love how you captured the proboscis of the moth. Lots of patience to get the great results.

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  3. AnonymousSun May 04, 11:40:00 PM EDT

    interesting moth! very nice shot!

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  4. TomMon May 05, 05:35:00 AM EDT

    When I see shots such as this I feel humble... the marvals of nature at times take your breath away... well captured Salty..

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  5. This Is My Blog - fishing guyMon May 05, 08:03:00 AM EDT

    Salty: I've seen these guys around but never had a name. They certainly do hover like a hummingbird. What a great picture.

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  6. imacMon May 05, 08:05:00 AM EDT

    Wonderful shot Salty.

    My bridge and odd shot are now showing.

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  7. DeeMomMon May 05, 12:01:00 PM EDT

    Wonderful, we have those here but I have NEVER been able to get a picture of them.
    Are they not neat?

    Super shot...

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  8. lv2scpbkTue May 06, 08:34:00 AM EDT

    I don't think I've ever seen one of these. Interesting post.

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  9. Chad Oneil MyersTue May 06, 01:02:00 PM EDT

    Truly Bizarre!

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  10. Lori Schmidt (LoriProPhoto)Fri May 09, 08:21:00 PM EDT

    I photographed one of these last summer too, I did quite a bit of research on them and apparantly you will see them early morning before the heat and it appears that they are attracted to things that have a pink or purple color, Mine was working on a flowering teasel which has light purple petals. You can see it on my other blog http:loriscritters.blogspot.com
    Just page down a bit. I have only seen them twice once I was fortunate enough to have my camera and a macro lens because this little guy is fast and small, less than an inch long (like his namesake in the feathered family).

    We have a beautiful lilac bush flowering at the moment I am going to start observing it more intently earlier in the mornings LOL. Also got a hummingbird feeder but need to put it up still.

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  11. Lori Schmidt (LoriProPhoto)Fri May 09, 08:22:00 PM EDT

    Sori the link to my second blog is http://loriscritters.blogspot.com

    My typing is going down the tubes.

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Thanks again
Coy