Hemaris fuciformis (Linnaeus, 1758)

Host plants:
Lonicera species, particularly Lonicera xylosteum.

Habitat:
Hemaris fuciformis inhabits clearings, forest edges, forest gap systems and shrub-reach areas in grasslands and slopes.

Life cycle:
The caterpillars are generally found on at least partial sunny and low bushes. The moth flies in one generation mostly in May and June (early July), with relatively often a partial second generation with emergence in about August. Hemaris fuciformis visits flowers during the day, such as Ajuga or Echium and can be seen ovipositing in the sunshine: the hovering female curves the abdomen at a leaf of the host plant and attaches an egg to the bottom side.

Endangerment: regionally endangered or decreasing

Endangerment factors:
Hemaris fuciformis is locally endangered due to darkening processes in the forests (dense continuous reforestation, eutrophication, directly adjacent coatless intensive agricultural areas, forest-pasture separation) and on grasslands by sometimes to radical bush removal.

Remarks:
Hemaris fuciformis is still much more common than Hemaris tityus, although the conditions were partially reversed earlier. But Hemaris tityus is dependent on nowadays often almost disappeared grasslands.

The distribution extends from Northwest Africa across most of Europe until well into Asia (Pamir, etc.).