Description
Come slowly – Eden! (205)
How was the artwork made?
The original artwork of a hummingbird moth at a primrose is by Lindsey Kiser and was rendered first in scratchboard with sharpened knitting needles and tattoo needles. Then, she layered washes of colorful inks over the scratches that revealed the soft white clay layer beneath the black ink layer. Next, the artist scratched layers into the colorful areas and repeated the pattern until she was satisfied with the resulting image.
What are hummingbird moths?
Perhaps one of the most delightful insect visitors to your garden is the hummingbird moth. Several species of the genus Hemaris deserve this name and for very good reason. They fly and move just like hummingbirds. Like them, they can remain suspended in the air in front of a flower while they unfurl their long tongues and insert them in flowers to sip their nectar. They even emit an audible hum like hummingbirds. Quite often inexperienced garden visitors notice what they think is a tiny hummingbird fleeting among flowers such as bee balm (Monarda). They listen incredulously when one explains to them that what they just saw was not a bird but a moth.
Hummingbird moths are rather plump; the tip of their tail opens into a fan. They are usually of a rich reddish brown color, at least in part. Like all Lepidoptera their wings are covered by scales; some species lose many of the scales from patches on their wings, so they are called clearwing hummingbird moths. Like most moths they have a very long tongue which they carry rolled under their chins and that they use to reach the nectar of long-necked flowers. Such nectar is inaccessible to many other flower visitors, so it seems that these flowers prefer long tongued pollinators and try to keep the others away.
