Elephant Moth Caterpillar

[foxhaven]

I have found an elephant hawk moth caterpillar in my garden [hiding under a globe thistle plant] I have read that they eat fuchsia or willowherb but I don't have any of these plants, will it starve ? - should I rush out and buy a fuchsia ?

[Chipchopper]

The plants that you mention are some of the preferred food-plants but other species may also be used by this caterpillar and in this case, I think it may be the globe thistle itself.
Evening primrose and petunias are also popular.

[Milvus]

It's probably finished its larva stage now and is looking for somewhere to pupate and overwinter. Hawk moths pupate underground so its looking to burrow down somewhere in your garden

[foxhaven]

Thanks for that info - I can't find it now anyway but after a rummage in the undergrowth I have found a couple of baby willowherbs and some bedstraw which I believe they also eat so it should be okay.
Thanks again

[foxhaven]

Incidentally I am having a lot of trouble with this website - it keeps freezing up and saying 'Answerbank not responding - return to webpage' - is this my laptops problem or does everyone have this ?

[cecil39]

yes me too, I think its poor internet service, I sometimes takes 24hrs to download a one hour tv prog, its just taken me 6mins to type this as the curser keeps dissapering.

[foxhaven]

Cecil39 - okay, glad it's not just me. Yours sounds worse than mine, on BBC player it takes me 1 hour to download a 1 hour programme, used to be quicker before I installed the 'update'