Egg-laying

There have been many sightings of Hummingbird Hawk Moths recently, and yesterday we were lucky enough to have one appear in our garden. Usually they're seen hovering near flowers drinking nectar, but this individual spent a lot of time around our large patch of Caucasian Crosswort Phuopsis stylosa, a species from the Caucusus and Northern Iran that's coping very well with the current drought. In several images it appears to have been laying eggs, so now we'll have to make sure we don't cut the Crosswort back, just in case!


We had a lovely family meal in the garden as a belated celebration of Lizzy's birthday. The Hummingbird Hawk Moth returned while everyone was here, and Chris was happy to get a few shots of it with his new R7 camera which he'd brought round to show me.