Summer is So Close!

It has been a busy winter and I have tons of photos I need to sift through for my final winter post. But, while working on that: I came across these lovely images of the Snowberry Clearwing Moth.

The arrival of the spring gardening catalogs tends to pull my attention away from matters at hand and make me look forward to spring and summer. Eric did a massive patio expansion in the fall and I have whole new areas to plant in order to surround the patio with flowers. At the top of my list are a variety of Monardas from Richters. The plants themselves look beautiful only for a short time. It is who they attract that mostly interests me.

This Clearwing is a perfect example. (S)he buzzes around looking like a bee, but a closer look will tell you this is really a day-nectaring moth. Pretending to be a bee is a perfect way to deflect hungry birds. A close cousin accomplishes the same task by pretending to be a hummingbird.

This Snowberry Clearwing Moth was photographed by Eric on our Monarda two summers ago and more photos are here.