Quizzes & Puzzles8 mins ago
caterpillar
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Yesterday afternoon, I found a caterpillar in the garden in Cornwall. It was about 3 and a half inches long, thick, segmented and bright green. It had a flat green head, purple and white, thin stripes along its side and a small yellow dot at the bottom of each pair of stripes. It had a sort of black and yellow horn on its bottom, about a centimetre long. I found it on the grass, not near any leaves, so think it may have been dropped by a bird.
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.Your very accurate description suggest some kind of Hawk Moth with the horn on the tail, but which one? They just seem to appear in gardens around this time of year to delight and confuse us at the same time.
Did your caterpillar look anything like this one? T
Did your caterpillar look anything like this one? T
Sorry about that, try this picturehttp://www.javajane.co.uk/Hawk%20Sphinx%20moth s/slides/privet_hawk_moth2.html
If kittenlittle is still watching this thread, there are pictures of hummingbird hawkmoth caterpillars in this site:
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=6090 8&page=1&pp=25
Look at Tanny's post (#22) on that page and again on page 2 (post #28)
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=6090 8&page=1&pp=25
Look at Tanny's post (#22) on that page and again on page 2 (post #28)
It is a moth, but there is also a bird called a Bee Hummingbird. It's the world's smallest bird, though it doesn't live in the the UK. Perhaps that's what your mum was referring to.
Trying to find pics of the Hummingbird Hawkmoth is not easy as most are a bit blurry, but have a look at these, especially the thumbnails at the bottom.
http://ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?id=1766
Trying to find pics of the Hummingbird Hawkmoth is not easy as most are a bit blurry, but have a look at these, especially the thumbnails at the bottom.
http://ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?id=1766