Hyles lineata

I was able to photograph an hummingbird moth (Hyles lineata) during the weekend and it turned out to be more difficult than I thought, given the insane speed of the tiny bugger!

Julian Donahue, a lepidopterist, provides the following fact list on Hyles lineata: "1. This is So. Cal's most common hawk moth, and are especially common in the deserts, where hundreds of moths can come to a single light in one night. 2. In "good" desert years, the larvae can be so abundant that desert highways are slick with their crushed bodies. 3. In the desert, larvae mostly prefer evening primroses (Camissonia and Oenothera), which are also in the fuschsia family (Onagraceae)--demonstrating once again that moths are excellent botanists! Tuttle (2007, The Hawk Moths of North America) also reports that in the West the larvae also feed on members of the plant family Nyctaginaceae [e.g., Abronia (sand verbena) and Mirabilis (four o'clock)]. 4. Native Americans have harvested the larvae as food. 5. United States' most widely distributed hawk moth, occuring in every state except Alaska, as far north as southern Canada, from Nova Scotia to British Columbia. 6. Pupation occurs in a loose cocoon of silk on or just below the surface of the ground. 7. Larvae have several color forms, ranging from green to black. 8. Two other related species in North America: the more widely distributed but much more northern Hyles gallii, which also occurs in Europe and feeds on similar hostplants, and Hyles euphorbiae, a native of Europe and Eurasia that has been introduced with only limited success to control pest species of spurge (Euphorbia species) in north central and northeastern U.S. and adjacent Canada. "