Burnished Brass NOT Sphinx in the garden

Its a beauty.

Beautiful!!

Great photo! Looks like a Pandorus sphinx. I also have another sphinx visiting my garden often commonly called a Humming Bird Moth. Do you have them in the UK?

We have a Hummingbird hawkmoth, Macroglossum stallatarum but I think that's all. We had one in the garden last year.

I still don't know which moth this is after looking at page after page, maybe it isn't sphinx family after all.
I thought with its distinctive markings & the dark heart shape behind the head it would be easy - but not so.

We do have the Hummingbird & the Privet hawkmoth in UK but not Pandorus which is a North American moth. These are all large ones. The one I found is barely 2 inches (20mm) at rest.
In the 2nd pic it's sitting on a hogweed leaf.

I don't mind moths in the garden or when out and about on my walks but if one enters my home especially the bedroom then I'm afraid I resemble a very noisy erratic windmill and yell for my nearest and dearest, absolutely petrified of them and spiders, why do they always invade the space of the most frightened person around I'll never know, lol...

Why do they invade in that particular manner? Even those creatures need a good ole' laugh now and then:) " a very noisy erratic windmill" I could just picture that! Thank You for starting my day off right Lincs!

I can't understand that either, LL.
If there's a spider somewhere in the house it will always appears right in my eye-line so I just cover it with an old plastic glass & they end up over next doors fence.

LS, I can just imagine the beasties having a laugh at poor Sue's whirling arms (smile).

Great photos & some good detective work, Gf! :-))

I've seen them flying around the plants on our balcony railings several times over the last few years though I haven't seen any this year.

I first saw them for the first time many, many years ago in Spain. I spied them over several summer evening drinking from my Geranium flowers as I sat in the cooling evening! :-))

Still not been able to ID this moth, probably not a sphinx at all!
Is there a keen Lepidopterist on GOY?

I've edited the heading as I've ID'd the moth today, it's a Burnished Brass moth, Diachrysia chrysitis.
It's another that eats nettles!

Common over most of the British Isles, this spectacular moth has large areas of metallic colouring on the forewings.
The species is double-brooded, with moths on the wing between June and September.
The larvae feed on plants such as nettle (Urtica dioica), and the species inhabits gardens, waste ground and marshy areas.

UK moths
For anyone that's interested here's a link:
http://ukmoths.org.uk/species/diachrysia-chrysitis/adult/

A new one to me, thanks for the information...

Very interesting, GF! You got to the bottom of this mystery! Well done!

Tbh, I've never taken much notice of moths & know very little except that one makes holes in my jumpers, lol, but I do love a good mystery :)