Moth Pollination 2. Sphinx Moths aka Hawkmoths and Hummingbird Moths

The sphinx moths are the family Sphingidae of the Lepidoptera, handsome moths that can hover in the air. Many fly by day or during dawn and dusk, so are more often spotted and admired than their relatives that fly in the dark. 

sphinx moth pollinating vervain

Citron, An Old Citrus Fruit

The citron, Citrus medica (orange family, Rutaceae) is one of the oldest of citrus fruits. Although we have many citrus fruits--lemons, limes, grapefruits, oranges, tangerines, etc.--all were produced by humans crossing a few wild plants with small and sour fruits and selecting for better fruits. The citron is one of those wild plants, ancestor to popular citrus fruits. It is not well-known. 

One of the varieties of citron, Citrus medica, the etrog

Moth Pollination I. Overview.

Moths are the secret pollinators. They fly at dusk or after dark, tend to be small, and have blotchy color patterns. For all those reasons, they get little attention. And yet:  Moths are very numerous. They make up most of the insect order Lepidoptera, moths and butterflies. Lepidoptera are the second largest group of insects, after beetles, with 180,000 species, which is about 10% of all described living organisms. Lepidoptera are broken into 126 families; two families are butterflies, 17, 000 species, the rest are moths. So nearly 10% of the world's organisms are moths. And yet we generally overlook them. 

big tropical moth, about an inch across

Of Brooms and Broom

 Everyone knows a broom:

broom

And lots of people know the plant, broom, common broom, Scotch broom Cytisus scoparius  

Scotch broom, common broom, Cytisus scoparius

I was surprised to learn that the plant named the tool, not vice versa.