Broad-bordered bee hawk-moth

Sitting outside in the sunshine, i noticed a kind of butterfly that I thought have seen before. because they move so quick and never sit still for a while. I told his to stay so that I could grab my camera for a better view.

Which he did.
He moved from one violet to another and I was able to get some nice pics.
I looked it up. I thought it was a hummingbird-butterfly, as we name it here. but they gave me a different name, which appeared later to be the same one.
Got some lovely close ups...while he is drinking violet-nectar.

Broad-bordered bee hawk-moth, Glasvleugelpijlstaart, Kolibrievlinder, Hemaris fuciformis.

He seems to be a night moth, but he's flying during the day.
Such a beauty!

Caterpillar

While gathering some nuts for the squirrels, I saw a yellow-green caterpillar crawling in the grass.

He was looking quite weird. having a kind of long red tail sticking up at the rear end.

I decided to take him home and find out all about him. I put him in a glass container, so that he would not run away, before I had found out his name. (Pale Tussock)(Calliteara pundibunda)(Meridians borstel).

He is really funny, having some brushes on his back, and the red brush at the end...

His host-plants are many, like beech, oak, birch and other trees. He pupates in leaflitter and overwinter as a cocoon. So I put him out under a birch-tree in my garden, between lots of leaves, so that he can cocoon someplace he likes. 

Ghost moth

Today, a for me unknown butterfly landed on a grass.
I never saw such a butterfly before and I thought it might be a kind of night-moth.
However he sat down in the sunshine and he was not hiding in the shadows.
I easily could come very close, he didn't seem to notice me at all.
So I was able to make photos from all sides.
I looked up his name: Ghost moth, (Hepialus humuli), (Hopwortelboorder).

Buff-tip

Buff-tip, Phalera bucephala, Wapendrager from all sides.
A really interesting butterfly, looks like a birch-branch.
First he sat on my window, so I could see his belly 
and than seen from the side he looks like a birch-branch with little legs.
So well camouflaged, you have to look really close in order to see it is really a butterfly.

stingingnettle-moth

Nearly stepped on this beauty, sitting on the floor, almost killed it.

But it flew just in time to the windowframe. to show me all of his spots.
Its a moth that lives on stingingnettles as one of my books tells me.
listens to the name:Eurrhypara hortulata.
or a stingingnettle-moth.
I managed to catch him in a glass, to let it fly outside.
Hopefully for him the stingingnettles are above the ground already.