Great shots! Sure startled me the first time I saw one a few years ago sipping nectar from a lily not long after I got my first digital camera. Now when I see them, I just watch and enjoy. They've been on my meadow sage and mallow this year so far but even with camera in hand, they moved too quick for me to catch a clear shot. I WS monarda/bee balm last year so I'll have to keep a close eye out for those little guys.

Does anyone have any ideas on saving our tobacco hornworm moths? In November, indoors? We've been told by a butterfly expert that they WON'T eat indoors, and they don't seem to be eating, despite: * a hummingbird feeder, with official butterfly food, and we glued a fake petunia on the end of the tube, so it hopefully looked kinda like something they'd try to eat from. If they used it, we were asleep and didn't see it. They sleep all day. * I've brought in some petunias from the window box (amazingly, they're still blooming the day after Thanksgiving!) * I've put liquid official butterfly food in a clean washcloth, nudged one up to it, and it chose to climb further up on the washcloth, last night. (2/3 of his/her right wings are gone, so he'll never hover again.) * I bought them some Stargazer lilies, (probably not their proper food) * They're in the guest bedroom (so the cats don't get at them again) where there's a Mandevilla flower -- big pink flowers, petunia-shaped. I'm going to try mounting the hummingbird feeder so that they reach it from the Mandevilla pot, where they may feel comfortable, blending in with the soil. Don't know if being on soil is good for them, either. But what do I do with them? This is late November; they can't be active in the usually 40+ degree temperatures out there, and there's very little blooming out there for them to eat. (They came indoors because, as caterpillars, they were on a tomato plant that we brought inside when it was likely to frost overnight, and we let them and their 6 sibs eat it ALL up. Most of their sibs crawled away after we put the pot back outside when the weather warmed up, and the tomato was out of leaves). At least these 2 pupated in the pot and came out 3 days ago. They will probably die soon, since they're probably not getting anything to eat. Funny--as caterpillars, they ate all day -- except when they saw us watching. Eventually they lost their fear of us, and ate when we were looking at them. Now, they want out! Little do they know. Another interesting thing: wild moths do not let you pick them up. These don't seem to have the usual fear of me. BEFORE they lost their ability to fly, when their wings had had many hours or a whole day to dry, they let me pick them up -- maybe they remember something from their past lives. Anyway, we're going to crazy lengths to try to give them their normal (2-week?) adult lifespan. Can anyone propose other means to get them to eat? Thanks!

Steve, that is the same moth as what I had. One hummer tried to chase it off and the moth went after the hummer and I was afraid it was going to kill the hummer. Whenever a hummer tried to come in the garden that thing went after them and chased them off. I also worry that next year the hummers won't come back to my garden because of that moth. Also, I'm sure it will reproduce and I'll have the moths again next summer. Last weekend we had frost here in WI and since then the hummers and moth have disappeared. I'm sure they have migrated to much warmer climates.

Nice photo! I've seen them too. Being protected from predators by their resemblance to bumblebees they fly in the daytime, not evenings as other hummingbird moths do. In fact that's how I saw my first one. I was watching bumblebees working over some flowering plants and all of a sudden I saw this one that was slightly different. Honeysuckle is one of the host plants for larvae. Thanks for posting!