Readers have sent photographs of small critters hovering over flowers, as if they were sipping nectar like hummingbirds. But they’re not hummingbirds. Instead, they are insects variously called sphinx ...

Anyone who has spent June in the Northland is very familiar with the six-legged critters here with us. These insects seem to be everywhere and anytime of the day. It is easy to note the abundance of ...

A viewer sent in this rather unique photo Wednesday, commenting: “I cut lilacs … today and put the vase on the hood of my car until I was ready to leave. My son informed me not to take the bug with us ...

If you see a strange-looking hummingbird at a Bay Area park this summer, it might not be a bird at all. Heavy winter rainfall caused a population boom for a moth called the white-lined sphinx. Many ...

About this time every summer, I hear from folks exclaiming that they’re excited to have seen baby hummingbirds in their yard. Knowing that they share my fondness for the birds, the last thing I want ...

Early fall brings an amazing insect to our flower gardens across the United States. It is the White-lined Sphinx Moth (Hyles lineata), also called the Hawk Moth or Hummingbird Moth. No matter what ...

Dear Master Gardener: I saw an insect that looks and flies like a hummingbird. What is it and can it damage my flowers? Answer: The insect you most likely saw, and that frequently gets mistaken for a ...

Have you noticed a large hummingbird-like moth in your garden these days? If so, it’s probably a white-lined sphinx moth, a common moth throughout North America. There are two broods, one in the ...

We have an old honeysuckle bush in our front yard twisting up a pipe 10 feet into the air. Planted by the previous owners, the orange-red flowers spreading out five feet around attract hummingbirds to ...

You know that old saying in journalism: Write about giant, weird bugs once, and your inbox forevermore will brim with photos of giant, weird bugs. It’s been two weeks since we covered the appearance ...

Jewel-toned wings gleam in the sun as this bauble of a bug flits from flower to flower. Fast and furious wingbeats, as many as seventy per second, produce an audible hum as it hovers, sipping nectar.

I was sitting at my campsite before dawn, enjoying a mug of coffee and watching the light accumulate in the eastern sky. My eastern horizon was formed partially by distant mesas and partially by a ...