Hello, Fancy Bug! Meet the Hummingbird Clearwing!

I remember the first time I ever saw one of these fancy bugs. I was out in our yard and it came buzzing in over the monarda. I thought it was some sort of mash-up of a hummingbird and a bumblebee. But it turns out that it is its own separate creature. This is called a hummingbird clearwing, and its scientific name is Hemaris thysbe.

At our house, we call this the "fancy bug." As in, "Honey, your fancy bug is here!" (Which is how my husband has alerted me to them in prior years.) This one, though, was not at our house. I came across it, sipping on teasel through that wonderful proboscis, at Buffalo Run Park.

It obliged me by spending two and a half minutes posing for me; these critters almost look like flying shrimp! There is a second photo - a full dorsal view - in the Extras, in which you may better see its clear wings, its thick body, and that "pet me please" soft-looking patch of fuzz just behind its head.

The soundtrack song for this marvelous bug is Neil Diamond, with Summer Love, from the film The Jazz Singer, which I saw TWICE when it was originally in theatres.