Macroglossum Stellatarum

I was in Donzdorf near the Swabian Jura on Saturday and Sunday and saw this insect I have never seen before. It looks like a humming bird, hovering in front of this catmint plant. The orange blur is the wings.

taubsmallw.jpg

It is called a humming-bird hawk moth in English and Taubenschwänzchen in German. It comes from the south every year – Donzdorf is further south than here and it has been really hot in Germany for weeks now – it overwinters as an adult but few survive north of the Alps. It’s a moth, but diurnal. There are better pictures amd more information in English on this site. And here are pictures and text on a German site.
A Finnish site shows a distribution map.

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