On Sat, 1 Mar 1997, James Morton wrote:
 
> They were probably at least an 1" long. The size was amazing to
> us  as well as the fact that we would see them mostly at night on our back
> porch  buzzing the lights like a moth. Although they were very scary they
> never
>  attacked us and eventually we stopped seeing them. They did not have fuzz
> on their bodies. They were actually a pretty color. Kind of a rich rust
> color.<
>
> The bald bodies, large size and nocturnal activity suggest to me that they
> were not bees at all. In Europe, my guess would be the hornet Vespa crabo.
> Is this species is present in the US?
>
 
        My guess would be a moth. Probably one of the clearwings. I'll
        have to take a look in the books tonight.
 
        There are some great mimics amongst the moths. There is one
        clearwing that look and acts almost exactly like  a hummingbird.
        We get hummers and the hummer mimic on the Monarda (bee balm) at
        the same time. They seem to ignore each other.
 
Dan Jones
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