Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Umm... I think I Just Saw a Hummingbird with Antennas

Umm.. so I think I just saw a fuzzy hummingbird with antennas.

What you probably just saw was a Sphinx Moth. They can hover in midair like hummingbirds by using the same figure-eight wingbeat as hummingbirds. One stroke goes forward and a mirror-image stroke goes backward, returning the moth wings to position and leaving the moth with pure lift.





From Alaska-in-Pictures
From Caliso Learning

And a moth that actually looks (and moves) like a hummingbird:


From Silkmoths

The Hummingbird Clearwing Moth!

Spinx/Hummingbird moths:
These guys fly around pollinating plants in almost every continent in the world.

Welcome to Science Cute!

Science is Cute. Well, since "cute" is just a concept linked to a feeling created by the human mind, not really. But by that logic nothing would be cute. So, Science is no more immune to cute than anything else.