Why They Are Called Clearwings

[Ziggy]

[deetheturk]

Great capture Jim, what did you use to capture this little beauty?

[Shadowman]

Nice capture.

[Ziggy]

Great capture Jim, what did you use to capture this little beauty?

Thanks both.

David I use a Panasonic FZ200 and a Panasonic FZ35. Used the FZ35 for this.

[deetheturk]

Cheers Jim, great capture!

[IzzieK]

Good capture, Jim...you are good!

[TobyMac]

Nice capture.

[Ziggy]

Thanks Izzie and Tobias.

Good capture, Jim...you are good!

Not good Izzie I just find good subjects.

[marlunn]

very nice image Jim, well captured

[JohnRostron]

Firstly, this is a great capture!

I can see why they are called clearwings, but I often wonder why the wings are clear. The ones we get in the UK are called Bee-hawkmoths and they are fairly scarce. They are supposedly Bumble-bee mimics, but they don't seem very convincing to me. The much commoner Hummingbird Hawkmoth does not have clear wings.

In the UK we have a number of moths called 'Clearwings' in a quite different family (Sesiidae). If anything they resemble flies rather than bees.

John

[Ziggy]

Firstly, this is a great capture!

I can see why they are called clearwings, but I often wonder why the wings are clear. The ones we get in the UK are called Bee-hawkmoths and they are fairly scarce. They are supposedly Bumble-bee mimics, but they don't seem very convincing to me. The much commoner Hummingbird Hawkmoth does not have clear wings.

In the UK we have a number of moths called 'Clearwings' in a quite different family (Sesiidae). If anything they resemble flies rather than bees.

John

Thanks Mark and John.

John thanks for sharing some information from your part of the world, interesting.