Hummingbird hawk-moth

Hummingbird hawk-moth
In flight
At rest
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Sphingidae
Genus: Macroglossum
Species:
M. stellatarum
Binomial name
Macroglossum stellatarum
Synonyms
  • Sphinx stellatarum Linnaeus, 1758
Distribution map: yellow, winter in the Northern Hemisphere; green, year round; blue, summer in the Northern Hemisphere

The hummingbird hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum) is a species of hawk moth found across temperate regions of Eurasia. The species is named for its similarity to hummingbirds, as they feed on the nectar of tube-shaped flowers using their long proboscis while hovering in the air; this resemblance is an example of convergent evolution.

The hummingbird hawk-moth was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. As of 2018, its entire genome and mitogenome have been sequenced.[1]

  1. ^ Li, Jun; Zhang, Yaoyao; Hu, Kunjie; Zhao, Yaqi; Lin, Ruirui; Li, Yan; Huang, Zhuoran; Zhang, Xu; Geng, Xuexia (2018-07-01). "Mitochondrial genome characteristics of two Sphingidae insects (Psilogramma increta and Macroglossum stellatarum) and implications for their phylogeny". International Journal of Biological Macromolecules. 113: 592–600. doi:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2018.02.159. ISSN 0141-8130. PMID 29501752. S2CID 3983266.