Do coquettes mimic sphinx moths? (1 Viewer)

On several occasions I have been almost certain that I have seen a Black-crested Coquette, only to realise on better views that it is actually a sphinx moth. I was once birding with two of the top birders in northern Central America when one of them called out that he had a coquette. He was then of course very embarrased when it was re-identified by us. About an hour later the other very experienced birder did exactly the same. At first I thought he was just joking, but he had made exactly the same mistake. Coquettes are actually quite rare in Central America and my only sighting has been in Costa Rica. I was struck by the fact that it seemed to buzz around slowly, exactly like a sphinx moth, and was ignored by all the other hummingbirds which spent half of their time attacking one another.
Does anyone know if there have been any studies to show that this is a form of mimicry to avoid being attacked by other hummingbirds, or whether the patterning and buzzy flight just happen to be convergent evolution for a similar lifestyle?

Tom

Or do sphinx moths mimic coquettes?

Mark
Bastrop, TX

I believe that Karl-L Schuchmann was touting just such a hypothesis a few years back, but I'm unclear on the specifics and didn't find anything through Google (with his publishing record, it's hard to believe that he hasn't published on it yet, but I don't speak/read German).

Though most sphinx moths in the U.S. don't fool experienced birders for more than a few seconds, there's was a similar case of mistaken identity back in 1978 in Big Bend National Park. Birders rushing to the location of a reported Black-crested Coquette found none but did spot an Aellopos-type sphinx moth with a lovely whitish rump band.