Broad-Bordered Bee Hawk Moth Hemaris fuciformis

Scientific Name: Hemaris fuciformis. (Sphingidae).

English Name: Broad-bordered Bee Hawk Moth (Hawk moth family).


French Name: Le Sphinx gazé (='the gauze sphinx')

5 Key Characters:

• day flying.
• resembles a hyperactive bumble bee, with fast and darting flight.
• the wings are transparent (completely clear and see through) except for the eponymous broad brown borders and the veins.
• feeds while hovering.
• body tawny golden with a broad rust brown band.

Lookalikes: Hummingbird Hawk Moth Macroglossum stellatarum, which does not have clear wings. Narrow-bordered Bee Hawk Moth H. tityus, which has narrower borders on the wings (unsurprisingly) and a less defined dark band on the abdomen.

Habitat: Woodland clearings and fringes, gardens. Attracted to Bugle Ajuga reptans flowers.


Flight Period: April-May-June-July.

Caterpillars: Typical hawk moth, large, green with rows of pinkish spots and a pair of fine yellow lengthwise stripes with a pink spine at the tail end. Host plants are bedstraws Galium spp and honeysuckles Lonicera spp.

Status: Not uncommon but never abundant.


Photographed by Loire Valley Nature:

Nectaring on lavender.

Nectaring on lavender.

Nectaring on lavender.

Nectaring on lavender.

Nectaring on lavender.

Nectaring on lavender.

Nectaring on lavender.

Nectaring on Common Knapweed Centaurea jacea.

Nectaring on Verbena bonariensis in a friend's garden near Le Grand Pressigny.