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 ...

What initially appears to be a confusing video of a moth-hummingbird hybrid creature is actually a perfect excuse for us to explain an intriguing evolutionary phenomenon. The creature is the ...

It isn’t unusual for common names of animals to reflect characteristics of other unrelated groups or types within the animal kingdom. A striking example of this nomenclatural quirk applies to a large ...

The name clearwing comes from the fact that there are sections of the moth’s wing that are transparent, like a dragonfly. The hummingbird part comes from the moth’s flight among flowers. / PHOTO BY ...

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 ...