CLOSED: Please identify this large caterpillar

Watch Reply

Mark unread Print Skip to new

veronmiller Gandia, Spain Sep 24, 2007

Found this beauty on my Jasmine plant,can anyone identify it.

Post #4012327

Quote

claypa West Pottsgrove, PA(Zone 6b) Sep 25, 2007

It's a sphinx or hawk moth larva. The closest I can find so far is the Death's-head Hawk moth, Acherontia atropos.
It has about the same pattern, and the horn on the tail has the same little bumps.

http://ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?id=1733

This message was edited Sep 24, 2007 8:33 PM

Post #4013608

Quote

claypa West Pottsgrove, PA(Zone 6b) Sep 25, 2007

Here's a site about "polymorphism in hawkmoths larvae", that has a caterpillar that looks the same. Look at figure 18:

http://web.tiscali.it/pmazzei/

Post #4013628

Quote

kennedyh Churchill, Victoria, Australia(Zone 10a) Sep 25, 2007

I agree with claypa that this is the caterpillar of the Death's Head Hawk Moth (Acherontia atropos). Ther are a couple of pictures matching yours on this site: http://www.leps.it/indexjs.htm?SpeciesPages/AcherAtropos.htm

We have a page for this moth in BugFiles, but no pictures so far: http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/go/3227/
so it would be great if you could add your image,

Kennedy