CLOSED: HUGE caterpillar found on virginia creeper

there are 3 of these on my vine. they are huge. while brown they also appear somewhat translucent. they have short white lines down both sides almost their entire length. they are ugly beyond comparison. and i am guessing but i think they are about 4 -5 in. long and about 1/2 to 3/4 in. in diameter. when i poked one of them with a twig it appeared to want to fight the stick. AND they have no discernible head. their mouths appear to just come out of the flat "head". they make large poop piles. they appear to be something out of ALIEN. if no one can make any kind of guess i will try to find someone to help me get a picture but i don't have a camera. i am almost hoping they are a bad bug so i can get rid of them. lol.

sounds like it is going to be a Sphinx Moth, one of the really nice one. Several use it for a host

why are we both up? lol. i saw a sphinx moth caterpillar online. and to me...........that caterpillar is too "pretty" to be this one. this thing is so ugly. i will look closer tomorrow but it appeared to be flat on both ends. and i could see this mouth thing on one end. and another thing.........the picture i saw of the sphinx appeared to be white "dots" or at least rounded areas of white. these that i saw are thin stripes.

ha- I was awake too, didn't know I was misssing a party...
if it eats VA creeper it can't be all bad, can it?

Mama several of the beautiful Sphinx moths like the Pandorus eat the Virginia Creeper. Most are very ugly cats, other are kind of pretty or unusual looking.

My book list these for using the Virginia Creeper. I planted some in a pots with the hopes of being able to raise a Pandorus Sphinx

Grapeleaf Skeletonizer
Lesser Grapevine Looper
Pandorus Sphinx
Abbott's Sphinx
Lettered Sphinx
Nessus Sphinx
Hog Sphinx
Eight-spotted Forester
Beautiful Wood-Nymph
Copper Underwing
also can be used by others

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!! one of them has turned green this morning. but........maybe they aren't quite as big as i thought in the light of day. or do they swell in size with high moisture?
o.k. i pulled them off the virginia creeper because frankly they ate all of the leaves thru the night. and they attacked me. lol. seriously what they do is kind of come at you with their "head" end and one of them shot some green stuff out of it's mouth but then immediately RETRACTED it's head. that is why it appears to be flat. so my question is, can i put them on my grape vines now that the creeper is gone?

lol. they aren't any where near as big as i said. i am scared of big bugs.

honestly don't know without know what kind it is. All you can do is try. You don't have anymore Virginia Creeper anywhere on your property???

you can have mine!! I need some cats to eat it!!

well i think it's that pandorus. i didn't think they were going to take to the grape vine as the brown one just kept moving along and not eating. until he got to the very end of the vine...and at that point he settled in and started eating. i will keep a check. my sister does have some virginia creeper on her place but i wanted to keep them here if i could to see what they turned into. these cats can really strip a vine in no time though.

oh how cool Mama.

but retractable heads............hahaha......... once you helped me figure out what they were they don't look nearly so scary. thanks. i am going to mark this as solved. even if i do have the variety wrong i am sure that is a sphinx moth of some kind.