Hummingbird Hawk Moth (Macroglossum stellatarum)

A day-flying moth, it has a brown, white-spotted abdomen, brown forewings and orange hindwings. The darting movement from one flower to the next with the long proboscis uncoiled completes the illusion of a hummingbird. It prefers to fly in bright sunlight, but it will also take to wing in dull weather, at dusk or dawn, and sometimes even at night.

It's pictured on Ceratostigma willmotianum in an Earley garden, at 7.30 pm on a hot July.

Sheila Crowson