The sphinx moth has a name that sounds straight out of mythology, but it actually reflects three very real creatures. Its name draws from the sphinx, the hawk, and the hummingbird — each describing ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...