What is this?

This is probably in the wrong forum but I thought you all might know what this is. It flies like a hummingbird and even hums like a hummingbird when flying. It flits from flower to flower like a hummingbird. But it is clearly an insect of some kind. I was lucky to snap a couple shots of it in my garden this evening. Is this friend or foe?

Here's another shot of the same critter.

Oops! Left out the photo from my first post. Here it is.

Its a Hummingbird Moth. Also called Clearwing Moth. They are very cool and have a long probiscus.
yvana :)

Great photos, beardtongue! I can never get their wings to show in the pics. They move so fast they're just a blur!

Thanks, poppysue. I can't believe I caught it either. It was flitting around so quickly. I never saw before tonight. Am I right to assume that it is a friend and not a foe?

The cats feed on plants from the honeysuckle family so that would make them good guys. They need to eat more Japanese honeysuckle.
The adults only drink nectar and help in pollinating so they are good guys too.

I just recently read that the caterpillar of this Sphinx Moth is the Horned Tomato Worm. So I would think that it is a foe of the garden. Although, when I saw my first one this summer, I thought it was a hummingbird! That's how big it was!

Celia:

That is a great photo! Gosh, yours looks really big. Where did you find the information about its caterpillar being a horned tomato worm? Yikes! I've got tomato plants nearby and sure hope the munching I thought I heard last night wasn't tomato worms! Literally, I could hear this low, crunching sound in my garden last night near dusk. I kept walking around trying to figure out where it was coming from but never did pin it down. Think maybe I better check my tomatoes when I get home tonight!

Kelly

The cat of the Hummingbird clearwing moth uses besides others honeysuckle as host plants, but not tomatoes.
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/lepid/moths/ga/1063.htm
The cat of the Five Spotted Hawkmoth is the so called Tomato Hornworm.
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/lepid/moths/ga/1079.htm
And there is also the Carolina Sphinx of which the cat is called Tobacco Hornworm wich also may take tomatoes as a host plant.
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/lepid/moths/ga/1081.htm