Name: Hummingbird hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum) Where it lives: Europe and North Africa, migrating north in summer and south in winter What it eats: Nectar
What's cool: A bird! This is a hummingbird hawk-moth! Not a hummingbird, this amazing species is a moth. Hummingbird-like, its wings flap so quickly they make an audible buzz, demonstrating convergent evolution.
The hummingbird hawk-moth is partial to flowers with tube-shaped petals and uses its long, curled proboscis — an elongated sucking mouthpart — to extract nectar from the flower's center.
One of the most remarkable aspects of the hummingbird hawk-moth is its vision. Unlike most insects, this moth depends on its eyes to precisely position its giant proboscis in the center of the flowers.
In a study published Jan. 29 in the journal PNAS, Stöckl and her colleagues used high-speed cameras to film hawk-moths as they hovered next to artificial flowers with different patterns on them.
They realized that the hawk-moths were using continuous visual feedback to fine-tune their movements along the patterns and make sure that the proboscis reached the center of the pattern, where the nectar should be.
Visually directed reaching is more common in mammals since it needs a complex brain circuit. Despite their smaller neural systems, hummingbird hawk-moths can conduct this complex activity.
We seldom see insects using eyesight to guide appendages. "Having a potential insect that guides an unusual appendage with vision was exciting," Stöckl added.