Sphingidae
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Dark sphinxes spearing chill morning air, ranged like sentries among the rickety spines of ever-so-slightly budding branches, the cormorants, their stiff, gilly wings outspread to dry, stud the logs that perch above the lake like the planks of pirate ships. Black as bats and shaped not too unlike them - save for their fancy, fan-like feathers, elongated necks, peachy jaws and bright, candle-white beaks - poised above the water in unruffled patience, wings trembling in the wind.
~ Many thanks to Kerstin Frank art and Cris Buscaglia Lenz for the beautiful textures. Also a bit of help from Topaz Studio. ~
Thanks for taking a look everyone !
Ce petit Sphinx possède une très longue trompe, 25 mm, soit environ la longueur de son corps. Il butine les fleurs (lavande, verveine, buddleia, centranthe, belle de nuit, pétunia) aux corolles plus ou moins profondes, en vol stationnaire, à la manière des oiseaux- mouches, on l’appelle d’ailleurs « Sphinx colibri ».
... Or blown away by the Sphinx de Vallières.
This picture has notes.
‘Twas a bleak morning and something was very wrong. Part of our “strange contraption” - the carrelet, a major landmark - had vanished into thin air, leaving only a stilted platform looking like an offshore helipad for naval choppers. It was also the first day of April ;-)
All sorts of things immediately sprang to mind including: Candid Camera and David Copperfield who, incidentally, was nowhere to be seen. And that in itself was rather suspicious, don't you think?.
View in lightbox, then zoom in while on full screen, to notice that the Sphinx de Vallières is an illusion created by the meticulous alignment of two separate pieces of rock – the head and the rest of the body - nearly 100 yards apart, see here (new tab). It’s where you stand that counts; tide and weather permitting of course.
You may also have noticed that, unlike the Great Sphinx of Giza with its disproportionately small head, our sphinx has a head big enough for two faces! Can you spot them? They're numbered 1 & 2 for the visually impaired. I must admit that the first one does look a bit stony-faced and the second a little apish. wouldn't you agree? (ツ)
Please scroll down the page a bit to see more photos.
Take that little extra care my friends and many thanks for calling,
Colin ... (ツ)
Back to photo page : Le Sphinx de Vallières en silhouette
We noticed this sphinx moth working the lantana about 5 pm and of course, in the shade. Finally, got a decent shot. 😉
Front yard Lantana
Tucson, Arizona
A very nice white-lined sphinx moth fed for a long time on the blue sage flowers and allowed me to get lots of good shots....
Some species info: www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Hyles-lineata
The riddle of the Sphinx.
'What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening? ' The answer? Man, who crawls as a baby, walks on two legs as an adult, and uses a walking stick in his twilight years. In Greek mythology Oedipus correctly answered this prompting the Sphinx to inexplicably drown herself.
More famously these days, American tourists naturally ask why the ancient Egyptians built the Pyramids so close to Macdonalds. The good news for them is that Pizza Hut is now even closer, easily accessible to men of any age. In this photo Pizza Hut is just a few steps behind me.
Le Moro-sphinx, Sphinx colibri ou sphinx du caille-lait est une espèce paléarctique de lépidoptères (papillons) diurnes de la famille des sphingidae, connus pour leur faculté à butiner en vol stationnaire à la manière des oiseaux-mouches. Il est de taille moyenne au corps trapu. Le dessus des ailes antérieures est brun beige et celui des ailes postérieures est orangé. Le corps est gris brun, avec le côté de l'abdomen noir tacheté de blanc. Il possède une longue trompe qui lui permet de butiner les fleurs, (généralement le nectar que les autres insectes ne peuvent atteindre) violettes, bleues ou blanches. Il affectionne les sauges et les lavandes. Il reste parfois "coincé" par sa trompe dans certaines fleurs au tube de la corolle trop étroit.
- Le Moro-sphinx est de la famille des papillons dont l'activité est diurne. Son vol est d'une précision et d'une rapidité peu communes, il peut atteindre 50 km/h, ce qui le place parmi les papillons les plus rapides.
- The hummingbird hawk-moth is from the family of butterflies whose activity is diurnal. His flight is of an unusual precision and speed, he can reach 50 km/h, which places him among the fastest butterflies.
This remarkable moth, even though its so big to barely fit in your hand, blends right in with the background when at rest. Its awesome orange caterpillars are something to see as well if you find them feeding on wild grape leaves later on this summer.
Assyrian Bronze Sphinx from Nineveh, part of the Ashurbanipal exhibition at the British Museum, London
People praying in the compound of Shwedagon Paya (temple).
Manussiha (man lion) is a mythical creature that guards Buddha and Buddhist architecture. It is usually placed at the four corners of stupas. It is called Burmese sphinx by some.
It is a tradition in Myanmar to pour water on Buddha statues.
Paonias myops, the small-eyed sphinx, is a moth of the family Sphingidae. The species was first described by James Edward Smith in 1797. It is found from south-eastern Canada to Florida and westward almost to the Pacific Coast.. Near my back door at my home in Fairfield Harbour, NC
I spotted this sphinx moth and at first though it was a snowberry clearwing moth, but closer inspection showed the wings weren't clear. My best ID guess in Nessus Sphinx Moth, but most photos of those show two white bands on the abdomen behind the wings, so I'm not totally sure. In any case, it's a new species for my Prairie Lepidoptera set.
The insects of Kansas guide shows nine sphinx moth species, but doesn't include the Nessus sphnix. However, none of the listed ones in the Kansas guide look like this. But, as iNaturalist does have Nessus Sphinx observations near Wichita, that still has to be my best guess at the ID.
Cleopatra`s Needle
Ein Hauch von Ägypten auf der grünen Insel. Es scheint als wäre hier an jeder Ecke eine Besonderheit zu entdecken, man muss nur die Augen offen halten. Was aber auf Dauer ganz schön anstrengend ist, wenn auch lohnenswert.
A touch of Egypt on the Emerald Isle. It seems that at every turn a feature to discover, you just have to keep your eyes open. But what in the long run is quite exhausting, albeit worthwhile.
England
Vereinigtes Königreich (United Kingdom)
London
März (March) 2015
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