Hummingbird Hawk-Moth Sightings Surge Across UK Gardens
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- Luke Burstow photographed a hummingbird hawk-moth feeding on buddleia in his Sussex garden on 30 June, noting that its wings — which beat roughly 80 times per second — still appeared blurry even at a very fast shutter speed.
- Butterfly Conservation has logged a big jump in sightings and inquiries about the species this year, with recording schemes officer Richard Austin calling it likely a "great summer" for the moth while cautioning it is too early to compare numbers with previous years.
- Richard Harrington, honorary fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, attributed the influx to warm southerly winds from recent UK heatwaves carrying moths from continental Europe and north Africa, and noted that drying food plants in Mediterranean breeding areas may also be pushing them north.
- Ray Barnett of the British Entomological and Natural History Society said sunny weather has put more Britons than usual in their gardens, raising spotting odds, and warned that milder winters driven by global warming could let the moth shift from purely migratory to a year-round UK resident.
- Hibernating adults that survive British winters could go on to reproduce locally; their larvae feed on lady's bedstraw and hedge bedstraw, both common wildflowers across the UK.
- Sightings have stretched nationwide — from Sussex and Bristol to Northern Ireland and even northern Scotland.
Why it matters: Butterfly experts say the hummingbird hawk-moth is shifting from occasional migrant toward self-sustaining UK breeding status — a tangible marker of climate-driven ecological change, since the moth's larvae already feed on common British wildflowers like lady's bedstraw.
