The sphinx moth

When the heady scent of ginger lilies and moonflowers permeates the autumn air at dusk, look for white-lined sphinx moths close at hand.

Drawn by the sweet perfume in these white flowers that brighten the night, the beautiful moths waft in to sip nectar in the day's waning light.

The sight of these big pink, white and brown moths causes a double take. They aren't what they seem to be. They are moths but there they are, hovering with whirring wings, feeding on nectar deep in a flower's center, behaving just like a hummingbird.

The moth's unexpected arrival in fall is always a delightful surprise for those lucky enough to see them. Suddenly they arrive, floating around the flowers, often in numbers, and their graceful hummingbirdlike behavior never ceases to amaze.

Peter Schultz, an entomologist and director of the Virginia Tech Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Virginia Beach, saw the moths for the very first time in his neighborhood recently. They were feeding on his neighbor's ginger lilies sometime around 6:30 p.m.

"They are startling both by their size and beauty," Schultz said. "It's fascinating to watch them hover like hummingbirds."

With a wingspan that can be over 3 inches, sphinx moths appear to feed like hummingbirds, too, but no. Look closely.

Instead of lapping up nectar with a long tongue the way hummingbirds do, sphinx moths use a proboscis, about as long as their bodies, that's coiled up under their heads. They unroll the slender feeding tube right into the center of a long-necked flower and suck away as if the tube were a straw.

Sphinx moths are not rare, but people don't see them very often, probably because of the flowers they especially like and the time they feed.

"Another 20 minutes and I wouldn't have been able to see them," Schultz said.

Sometimes they are called hummingbird moths, but that name can be confusing. A clearwing moth that flies in the day also behaves somewhat the same way and one of its common names is also "hummingbird moth."

"White-lined sphinx moth" is not a descriptive name either, because the moth's pink color is what stands out amid the white and brown. Of several species of sphinx moths, this is one of the most colorful.

It's hard to believe that the genes of this handsome moth could be responsible for a caterpillar as frightening as a hornworm, but they are. All species of sphinx moths come from the chrysalises of various hornworm caterpillars. Hornworms have a formidable-looking, though harmless, hornlike projection on their back. Even scarier is their huge size, as caterpillars go.

"Of course," Shultz, said, "because they become such big moths."

Almost as big as hummingbirds.

Mary Reid Barrow, barrow1@cox.net