caterpillar

[kittenlittle]

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.

[Cetti]

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

[Cetti]

Sorry about that, try this picturehttp://www.javajane.co.uk/Hawk%20Sphinx%20moth s/slides/privet_hawk_moth2.html

[kittenlittle]

Exactly that one! A privet hawk-moth. It was fascinating and it did some ENORMOUS droppings!! Wish I'd known what it was before I released it, as I wasn't sure which leaves to put it on/ near, but wanted to hide it from birds.

[Cetti]

Have you seen a picture of the actual Privet Hawk Moth?

It's pretty spectacular, being very large at 100mm, and also a bit 'girly' with pretty pink stripes on the wings and abdomen.

[Elfin]

Here's one I did earlier:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/elfin/7626908/

[kittenlittle]

Yeah, I googled privet hawk moth and looked at the images. Wow, what a beauty. Have spent all day marvelling at all of the different moths out there on various internet sites.
Saw a hummingbird hawk moth yesterday in the garden too (can't find a pic of it as a caterpillar).

[Cetti]

Wow Elfin, what a fabulous picture!

I knew they were big, but not that big! Are they the largest of the UK moths?

[gen2]

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)

[gen2]

Of course kittenlittle will see it, it's kittenlittle's thread! Silly me!

The privet hawkmoth caterpillar may have been on the grass if it was ready to pupate. They search out soft soil and pupate below ground.

[Elfin]

Thanks Cetti! Yes, I think they are the largest in the UK. Pretty serious eh! I like hawk-moths, because they are really easy to handle. They stay put and grip on to your hand, which makes photographing them really easy!

[kittenlittle]

I told my mum that the hummingbird thing was a moth and she said she thought it was a bee. Is there a hummingbird bee too? I haven't looked at it closely, only through a window, and it's soooo fast, I can't comment on it's markings.

[Cetti]

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