Striding through the Bracken I suddenly came face to face with this! At first I thought it was a bird dropping, but then it turned and looked at me AAaahhhhh!!
It was feeding on some Rosebay Willowherb.
This is one big bugger of a caterpillar.
It will eventually mature into a beautiful Elephant Hawkmoth.
A scary bottom point makes you believe that it more dangerous than it is, but it has no sting and is quite harmless.
The 'elephant' part of its name comes from the trunk like protuberance when it is feeding, but it wasn't playing ball so I never got a clear photo. It pulls its nose in like this to emulate a snake, and it works too, scared the willies out of me.
I didn't take this last photo. It becomes a moth that Walt Disney would be proud of, all pink and fluffy. These hover to feed from Honeysuckle of an evening.This was a lovely snippet of video. Super clear, well lit, I was quite proud, but upload it to blogger and it's suddenly blurry and crap looking. Never mind, it's still exciting, all this 'moving pictures' business....it'll probably never catch on.
12 comments:
WHOA! How creepy and yet still infinately interesting - thats a big sucker! Well spotted, Mate - and my hats off to you for knowing what species it is...Im very glad my species doesnt have to look like a poo for its first half :)
That is one very HUGE BUG....I have never seen a moth with pink on it....beautiful! :-)
(PS- re: your comment Youre brilliant! Its all true!! At last the universe make sense to me!!)
Never seen an animal like that, It's frightening! ^^
That is the hugest caterpillar that I have ever seen. We had zillions of the wooly ones about a month ago, but none of them were near that size, or really that good looking.
oh no
nightmare inducing ick.
you are a brave manly man getting so close
Quite startling and really looks like a snake. I think I would have been many feet in the other direction if I had seen it.
Ick! All I can think of is how much damage that huge caterpillar would do to my garden.
But I must commend you on your courage... I wouldn't have touched that thing!
'e's big in'e? I never knew we had things like that, that big, in this country. Good shots.
That moth is wow. Breathtakingly gorgeous.
xo
Blue
Couldn't get over the size of that caterpillar.
i gotta say...that's one very impressive caterpillar. hope u have the chance to photograph it again, once it becomes that gorgeous moth. wonderful photowork here! thanks for sharing.
Just fantastic! That is one beautiful catepillar. Doesn't seem too be hidden in its surroundings very well - unless you think it is just bird poo...
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