Snowberry clearwing (mating)

Description:

This was quite a scene in the marigold garden as the mating Snowberry clearwing moths moved from flower to flower. These day-flying moths are great pollinators and are wide spread in North America. Sorry about the blurry first half of the video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNvH0daRJpU

Habitat:

Spotted in a marigold garden in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Notes:

The females entice the males with an aroma or pheromone that they produce from glands at the tip of the abdomen. After mating, they lay their tiny, round, green eggs on their larval food plants, usually on the underside of the leaves. The caterpillars have a horn at the rear end and are commonly green, well camouflaged among the leaves. When they are fully-grown they drop to the ground, spin a loose cocoon and pupate, partially protected by leaf litter. In the north, where the season is short there is only one generation per year; the pupa spends the whole winter well hidden and the adult does not emerge until the next spring. In the south, there is usually more than one generation each summer.