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.
