Gerald McCormack, CINHT
Gnathothlibus erotus Hover-feeding on Tahitian Gardenia – Cook Islands, Rarotonga – Gerald McCormack
Sometimes in the evening bird-like creatures hover over flowers while probing them with a long slender beak. Are they hummingbirds?
Although they look like the hummingbirds of books and films these creatures are actually large moths, known as hawk-moths or sphinx-moths. They have strong slender wings enabling them to fly very fast and to hover. They are nocturnal feeders, usually starting around dusk. Their caterpillars are called hornworms, because they have a long horn on the rear end.
In the Cook Islands there are five species of hawkmoth. Our most commonly seen hawkmoth is the large brown Gnathothlibus erotus – wow, what a name. Unfortunately this large moth (to 5cm long) does not have an English name. It is our only hawkmoth with a white stripe from the eyebrow along the sides of the thorax, so we might call it the White-brow Hawkmoth.
