CLOSED: Caterpillar Unknown

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Ruthdfl Johannesburg, South Africa Oct 02, 2006

Does anyone know what caterpillar this is? I found a few of them on the underside of my ornamental Rhubarb - It is 13.5cm long.

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kennedyh Churchill, Victoria, Australia(Zone 10a) Oct 02, 2006

That is a caterpillar of one of the Hawk Moths or Sphynx Moths in the family Sphingidae.
I found this site which has details of South African Sphingidae: http://www.museums.org.za/bio/insects/lepidoptera/sphingidae/index.htm
but none of them show Rhubarb as a food plant.
It does look pretty like the caterpillar of the Death's Head Hawk-moth (Acherontia atropos): http://www.leps.it/indexjs.htm?SpeciesPages/AcherAtropos.htm
and this species does feed on quite a large range of plants, although I found no reference to rhubarb or the Polygonaceae.

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