Garden cameo! 🐛 This vibrant visitor is a white-lined sphinx moth (Hyles lineata) in the making. Before they transform, these caterpillars can grow up to 3 inches long and come in a surprising variety of colors—green, brown, even black! Love bugs? Great news! We’re seeking volunteers for our insectary. In addition to feeding and caring for the insectary’s current caterpillar residents, you’ll help search our gardens for new ones! To get started, complete a volunteer application: wildflower.org/

Hyles euphorbiae, the spurge hawk-moth, is a European moth of the family Sphingidae. Great Tit bird tweeting in the background, slowed down to reveal how it sounds like a completely different animal. Photographed in Zhytomyr, Ukraine. September 2024. | MacroLab3D

Is it a hummingbird? No, it’s a white-lined sphinx moth (Hyles lineata)! These moths hover in front of flowers and drink nectar through their proboscis, a tube that extends from the front of their heads. Sphinx moths look, move, and eat like hummingbirds, but they are not closely related. Hummingbirds and sphinx moths–creatures from two different branches on the tree of life–have evolved similar traits to fill similar ecological niches. This phenomenon of two unrelated species forming similar ad