27 thoughts on “The Big Reveal”

  3. It actually is a butterfly, one of the skippers called duskywings. Note the hooked antennae that are typical of skippers.

    1. If you would be so kind, sir, remind us non-lepidopterists – what is the basic difference between a moth and a butterfly? (and while your at it, is a hummingbird bee moth a bird, a bee, or a moth?)

      1. Technically butterflies are just one branch of the moth tree. But in general butterflies are day-active and brightly colored, with clubbed antennae (except in one family, the skippers, where the club ends in a hook), with thin bodies. Moths have straight or feathery antennae, are more robust bodied, and are usually nocturnal with subdued colors. Also, many moths make cocoons while butterflies don’t cover their pupae with silk. If I am thinking of the right animal, a hummingbird bee moth would be one of a couple of species of Sphinx moths, sometimes called hummingbird moths because they hover in front of flowers to drink nectar – a great example of convergent evolution. Most moths in that family (which come from the familiar hornworm caterpillars) fly around dusk or at night, but a couple are pretty convincing bumblebee mimics that visit flowers in the daytime. Those must be your hummingbird bee moths, I guess.

      2. Technically, butterflies are one branch of the moth evolutionary tree. In general, butterflies are diurnal and brightly colored, have thin bodies and clubbed or in the case of skippers hooked antennae, and don’t make silk cocoons. Moths in general are nocturnal and more subdued in color, have straight or feathery antennae, are robust bodied, and many make silk cocoons. I am guessing that what you call hummingbird bee moths are a couple of species of Sphinx moths, which are the moths that come from the familiar hornworm caterpillars. Most of them fly at dusk or at night, all of them hover over flowers to drink nectar. It is a great example of convergent evolution with hummingbirds, so hummingbird moths is another name for them. There are a couple of species that are pretty convincing bumblebee mimics that visit flowers in the daytime, those must be your hummingbird bee moths.

        3. I’d agree with much of the above but would qualify it slightly. Robust bodies are typical of certain moth families such as the Noctuidae and the Sphingidae but by no means of all moths. Amongst the so-called macro moth families the Geometridae often have a rather flimsy looking body and many species are quite reminiscent of butterflies. There are many families of micro moths comprising thousands of species that would not at all merit the description ‘robust bodied’.
          Likewise the production of silk cocoons is far from universal in moths.

        4. True, and it is always good to be reminded of this. This means that butterfly caterpillars used to spin silk cocoons. Of course such caterpillars still make small amounts of silk, such as a silk platform to molt on and a silk attachment for their chrysalis. If there are any genes that are specific for making full silk cocoons then we can predict that butterflies will have vestiges of such genes.

  7. I note that this is ivy, Hedera helix – I thought that was invasive in North America & rooted out?

  9. Now why would a dusky skipper (butterfly) land right next to a grasshopper? Hum?

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