Lime hawk moth - (Mimas tiliae)

[MKJ]

In article <%UMY4.11259$F31.1342618 at news3.cableinet.net>, "Russell England" <russ at globaldialysis.com> says:
>
>I don't know anything about moths, but after looking through several
>pictures on the internet, it appears we had a lime hawk moth (Mimas tiliae)
>in our garden yesterday afternoon.
>
Mimas tiliae comes to the light (uv-light) at the night. You can try also with a normal light pulp too, it might
come, and you can see a plick of it and try to catch it with the net. The males
are more active and fly around seeking for females by schearching invisible pheromone paths, which are
speading down to the wind. The male "smells" the pheromone and try to find the lady by flying as quickly as he can
along that invisible tunnell thru the air  in the deep darkness, avoiding trees, bushes and other obstacles
at the same time.

This spiece do not eat anything as an adult so it does not visit flowers. It does not have anykind of mouth
or eating (drinking) systems in its body.
This spiece and its early stages (egg, larva, pupa) are not poisonous and therefore they are harmless
for humans. Also this spiece is that rare, that it does not cause any thread to human economy by destroying
environement (trees, forests). Because it does not visit flowers as an imago it does not help the plants
to multiply, therefore it is not very usefull for plants so you can call it as a parasite. It causes only a harm to
plants as a larva. If there were no enemies for this spiece (viruses, birds, bats etc...) its living startegy 
will cause a huge damage to the plants (lime trees) in the long run.
This spieces ecology is not quite clear to science, there might be some sort of details which are still unknown.
Its possible that some other spiece which is very usefull for the limetrees is depended to the Mimas tiliae and
uses it as a host???  Maybe someone is or has search this kind of things and can tell the whole story of Mimas
tiliae...

Matti