Butterflies, Moths and Assorted Insects...

...ran into this via Google AI:

Hummingbird moths do not intentionally "spit out" or regurgitate nectar. Like butterflies, they draw liquid nectar through their straw-like proboscis to fuel their intense hovering flight. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Because the nectar they consume is mostly water and sugar, they extract the nutrients and pass the excess fluid through their digestive system to excrete it as waste while flying. They do not spit it back out through their mouths.


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One half-decent and two rather pedestrian images of Hummingbird Moths follow (M6MkII + adapted EF-100-400)

IMG_7551 picasa crop.JPG

IMG_7555 picasa crop.JPG

IMG_7556 picasa crop.JPG

Examination of EXIF data reveal that the three images above were acquired within a time span of 0.42 seconds (the first two were in succession; the two images that follow are not posted here, so what is here are #s 1, 2 and 5 imaged at 14 fps) so the 'drops' in the image above are likely 'excretion'.

Just another joy of photography with decent gear...and the moth was rather modest (flying behind flowers while excreting ;) ).
 
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