A just emerged Elephant Hawkmoth

In the early morning, we found this Elephant Hawkmoth, Deilephila elpenor, in the garden, on the base of the iron leg of a chimenea. It took us a bit to realise that it was fresh, just emerged from its pupal skin, wings still floppy. We moved it to a cat-safe location higher up on bushes, where she positioned herself again facing up, wings folded over her back as they filled up.
 Elephant Hawkmoth caterpillars feed on Rosebay Willowherb, Bedstraws and Fuschias. There is a fuschia overhanging our garden and many cleavers. It was nice to realise that this moth's amazing caterpillar, which gives its common name to the moth, grew somewhere in the garden, and pupated nearby on the soil.
 When I came back from work, in the evening, she was still hanging there, her wings hardened and opened (below). Hopefully she'll fly away tonight.

Elephant hawkmoth and caterpillar eyespots

While visiting a farm in the Peak District, we stumbled with this awesome mini beast: a fully grown Elephant Hawkmoth caterpillar. I had been wanting to see this caterpillar for a long time. Knowing that they like willowherbs I had often look for them when I saw a drift of rosebay willowherb. But not this time, somehow, its dark colour made it stand up against the green foliage. She was hanging upside down from the underside of a rosebay willowherb leaf, on a plant growing by a hedge.
 While handling it it adopted all the postures this caterpillar is known for, suggesting either an elephant, when the caterpillar is fully extended, or a snake, when the caterpillar is disturbed and it raises its front, while retracting its head.
 A 'snake' resemblance is a recurrent theme in various large caterpillars from several families, and it has been suggested that this way the caterpillars gain protention from birds, wary of snakes, which are startled when the caterpillar moves its head and the eyes are exposed on the thickened anterior end.
 A Canadian team formed by Thomas Hossie and Thomas Sherrat carried out an interesting set of experiments using pastry caterpillars, which they exposed to natural predation by placing them in branches in the wild. They used pastry caterpillars coloured with food dye with or without eyespots with or without defensive posture ('snake') and with or without countershading.Their results suggested that the presence of eyespots and the raised position might deter birds from eating the caterpillars and countershading and the position of the eyespots in the thickened anterior end has a protective effect too. But don't rely on me telling you, as you can read it from Hossie's himself in his blog Caterpillar Eyespots.

A close up of the eyespots.

The 'elephant' pose.

and the 'snake' pose

another angle of the snake pose

And of the elephant pose.

The happy caterpillar munching away on its new home.

Wandering Lime Hawkmoth caterpillar

From mid August to mid September is prime time for squished Lime Hawkmoth caterpillars. Being ready to pupate, they leave the lime trees where they have fed all their lives in search of a suitable pupation site on the ground. As lime trees like streets and parks, I always find them crossing the paths, and most often than not, already squished by passers by. Keep an eye on them, they are as large as a pinky finger when fully grown, greenish to pinkish colour, and with a blue 'horn' at the rear end. We collected this one, which we found on the school grounds this afternoon, to watch the rest of its life cycle at home.

Encounter with a Lime Hawkmoth

Our street is lined with lime trees and occasionally, in mid August, we come across the wandering caterpillars of the Lime Hawkmoth, Mimas tiliae, as they leave the trees and get ready to bury themselves under the soil to pupate. I have very rarely come across the adult, but this morning my son found this fresh, magnificent male on his spade. The moth stayed put on some Herb Robert all day, waiting until I came back from work. Were not for the fact that we knew exactly where it was, its amazing camouflage, with a patchwork of dark green and pinkish shades and scalloped wing edges, would have made him pass unnoticed. This species has increased its range and is distributed through most of England. Adult lime hawkmoths fly in May and June and do not feed, their only purpose in life is to find a mate.
 I couldn't resist and had to take some shots on a whit(ish) background. On close up, the antenna and red front legs are very apparent.

Tonight, the male will probably fly in search of a female with the help of his feathery antennas.

A Poplar Hawkmoth story

One night of early July, a large female hawkmoth heavily laden with eggs got in our laboratory through an open window, attracted by lights. Before she died, she laid her eggs on the window glass.
 It was lucky somebody noticed the dead moth and eggs and kept an eye on them. Tiny pale green caterpillars with disproportionately large heads, started to emerge on the 27th of July, and proceeded to eat their egg shells.

After a quick internet search we identified the hawkmoth as a Poplar Hawkmoth, Laothoe populi, one of the commonest in the UK. After bringing in some poplar branches, the caterpillars started munching away and growing, and growing. After four weeks they were full size, beautiful velvety green caterpillars with yellow and red markings.

Nineteen of them have now pupated and I'll keep you posted when/if they emerge some time next May.

An unexpected humming visitor

Yesterday, while taking photos of the resting Wool-Carder bees, I was nicely surprised by the low humming noise coming from a Hummingbird Hawkmoth, Macroglossum stellatarum. It was feeding high up in the blossoming buddleia. Fortunately I had the camera with me (I don't let it out of my sight these days!) and managed a few shots. The one on top is the best. Like the Painted ladies and silver Y moths, they are migrating insects from southern latitudes, which tend to come in warm weather and tend to appear on the same summers.

Graph showing my local records for three migrant species as year totals. The scale is logarithmic and I have replaced 0 by 0.1 to allow for this.

Hummingbird Hawkmoths take their name from their hovering flight. As other hawkmoths, they have long proboscides and do not land on flowers to feed, but just hover in front of them, darting sideways to the next bloom. They are active during the day and at dusk, which makes them easy to observe, unlike many nocturnal moths, including some of the same Hawk-moth family (Sphingidae). Hummingbird hawk-moths have fast flight and small wings, so, due to their high energy demands they prefer nectar rich flowers. My records are in Buddleia, Caryopteris, lavender, Centrarthus ruber and Ceanothus.

Hummingbird hawk-moth feeding on buddleia at sunset (Sep 2003)

 Hummingbird hawkmoths have been the subject of learning experiments carried out by Almut Kelber regarding flower colour and design. They are as good learners as bumblebees, much better than the butterflies tested, which had strong innate preferences. Although the hawk-moths have a innate preference for blue flowers, they are eager to try new colors and easily learn to associate different colours with food rewards. Given that they are relatively long-lived (up to 4 months in the laboratory) and strong migrants, this flexible learning behaviour might give then the ability to sustain their high energy requirements from different, seasonally or locally changing flower resources.
 If you have any records, Butterfly Conservation is carrying out a survey: Migrant Watch - Hummingbird Hawk-Moth.