Hummingbird Hawkmoth (
Microglossum stellatarum) This rare summer visitor to the College is an absolute wonder to see and hear as it hums around the garden. It hovers over a flower and its amazingly long proboscis is extended into the flower it is feeding on. Like it avian counterpart it can also fly backwards. I have only seen it once about five years ago when it visited my garden to feed on Sweet William. It is not recorded as an Irish species but when I contacted TCD I was told that it is not all that uncommon during very fine summers. I have seen it frequently while on holiday in Portugal and Spain.
This brilliant photograph was taken by Harry Brooke in Form VI.
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