Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Humming in Croatia: Imitation?



In my recent trip to Croatia, as we sat at an outdoor Café by the Watermill Town of Rastoke, I thought I saw a small hummingbird, just like the ones I have seen in Central America but smaller. But hang on, there are no hummingbirds in Europe. I took some photos anyway and looked it up later.



It was of course the Hummingbird Hawk-moth: Macroglossum Stellatarum

Imitation or what? Some Websites, notably Bird ones claim that the Moth imitates the Bird! Oh! Really, how do they know! You mean the dolphins imitate the sharks or the possums imitate primates. They should know as in Biology it is known as Convergent Evolution. After all, the Moth flaps its wings at 85/second and the Bird only up to 50/second.

They can withstand temperature as high as 45°C and they have an amazing visual system that iPhone has not quite caught up with.

You can read all about it here at PBS/Nature.




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