What do you get when you cross a bumblebee and a moth?
A bumblebee moth, of course.
Sheri Bessette emailed a picture of the flying insect spotted in the Okanagan.
“I’ve lived in the Okanagan for over 35 years and had never seen one of these beautiful creatures before,” she says. “According to my research, it goes by two names: the snowberry clearwing and the bumblebee moth. They are often mistaken for a hummingbird moth.”
After seeing one on a bloom of a lilac a couple of weeks ago, Bessette said she started noticing more and more.
“What an absolute delight. They are harmless and beautiful,” she says.
The moths (not really a crossbreed even though they do look kind of like a bumblebee) can be found pretty much across Canada and much of the United States.
The website Backyard Ecology says they are acrobatic fliers and have moves similar to a hummingbird.
Adults are most often seen in open or brushy habitats where there are abundant flowers.
Despite having the word bumblebee in their name, they are still a moth and have no sting.
Have you had a close encounter of the insect kind?
