I have had exactly the same experience I saw a macroglossum stellatarum flying up and down my privet hedge I thought was strange behaviour so I filmed it the moth laid two eggs on the privet which I collected up I hatched them out they both started to take tiny notches out of the privet but then died the following day I wonder if this behaviour is the start of the moth trying to expand the variety of food plants it can eat as the choices only seem to be different species of bedstraw which soon dried out in hot weather
