For days as I passed among them, I thought them huge bees.  The bright colouring of their golden olive-green, and red-wine striped bodies had attracted me in passing.  Then one of them approached a thistle head opposite me in such a way its antennae and the long tongue it thrust into the bloom could be seen.  That proved it was not a bee, and punishment did not await any one who touched it.

There were so many that with one sweep of the net two were captured.  They were examined to my satisfaction and astonishment.  They were moths!  Truly moths, feeding in the brilliant sunshine all the day; bearing a degree of light and heat I never had known any other moth to endure.  Talk about exquisite creatures!  These little day moths, not much larger than the largest bumble bees, had some of their gaudiest competitors of moonlight and darkness outdone.

The head was small and pointed, with big eyes, a long tongue, clubbed antennae, and a blood-red nose.  The thorax above was covered with long, silky, olive-green hair; the top of the abdomen had half an inch band of warm tan colour, then a quarter of an inch band of velvety red wine, then a band nearer the olive of the shoulders.  The males had claspers covered with small red-wine feathers tan tipped.  The thorax was cream-coloured below and the under side of the abdomen red wine crossed with cream-coloured lines at each segment.

The front wings had the usual long, silky hairs.  They were of olive-green shading into red, at the base, the costa was red, and an escalloped band of red bordered them.  The intervening space was transparent like thinnest isinglass, and crossed with fine red veins.  The back wings were the same, only the hairs at the base were lighter red, and the band at the edge deeper in colour.

The head of the male seemed sharper, the shoulders stronger olive, the wings more pointed at the apex, where the female’s were a little rounded.  The top of the abdomen had the middle band of such strong red that it threw the same colour over the bands above and below it; giving to the whole moth a strong red appearance when on wing.  They, were so fascinating the birds were forgotten, and the hillside hunted for them until a pair were secured to carry home for identification, before the whistle of the cardinal from Rainbow Bottom rang so sharply that I remembered this was the day I had hoped to secure his likeness; and here I was allowing a little red-nosed moth so to thrust itself upon my attention, that my cameras were not even set up and focused on the sumac.

This tiny sunshine moth, Hemaris Thysbe, was easy ofidentification, and its whole life history before me on the hillside.  I was too busy with the birds to raise many caterpillars, so reference to several books taught me that they all agreed on the main points of Hemaris history.