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 ...

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 ...

Bee to the blossom, moth to the flame; Each to his passion; what's in a name? — Helen Hunt Jackson, 19th century American writer, poet, and activist When it comes to moth names, have I got some ...

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 ...