Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: DAILY PICTURES #107, 3 by scarletbean

scarletbean wrote:
Yak, that is a jaw dropper! How did your daughter see it? If I had that fly up to the porch light, I would fall over!!! I gotta put that moth on my wish list of things I want to see in person before I die. I got my Luna moth wish last year. And the crazy Horned Devil caterpillar that I saw in my yard last summer was definitely a memorable creature. I called a friend over to see it and he said he had been waiting to see one since childhood when he saw it in a book.

I wish the photos were better, but this guy (gal?) was fast! Also, I forgot to put a reference for size in the pics. It was about 4 or 5 inches long and about as big around as my thumb. This caterpillar was constantly on the move, and not in the mood for posing. They are burrowers rather than regular cocoon on a stick type and i decided to let him go in the mulch pile rather than bring him inside. I was afraid the heating indoors would mess up his timing and he would emerge too soon. Or that the container wouldn't be deep enough for him to dig down far enough. So i let Mother Nature take care of him.