Any idea what this could be?

[Julia]

My uncle's neighbor fished this thing out of his pond this morning. Of course, my dear uncle immediately thought of me (and my love of all things creepy and crawly) and emailed me a picture of it.

Unfortunately, I have no idea on this one. I know it's a caterpillar of some sort. It's very dead and appears to be a bit rotten from being in water. It was found in eastern Pennsylvania (Bethlehem, to be exact). If you don't notice at first, it appears to have a.....spike/horn/claw coming out of it, right about the 4.5" mark.

Any ideas??

 

[BrettG]

Looks like a Tomato Hornworm,or a close relative

 

[Julia]

Thanks BrerttG! I looked up the bug you mentioned.... Am I right in assuming that it's a Hummingbird moth larva? That's what one of the webpages said a Tomato Hornworm turned into. If not, please direct me to a better source. If so, that would make sense. I've seen many hummingbird moths (when I lived in PA), and their size would make me think that they have enormous larva!

 

[BrettG]

No prob. I had to deal with them in Illinois quite often.Those things destroyed my garden a few times. I mean heck,I am no expert,but that sure looks like one to me.....That thing is massive!........And yes they turn into Hhummingbird moths when matured( at least as far as I know,lol)..........................................Brett,who couldn't even spell his own name properly when creating an account.

 

[spiderfield]

Hummingbird moths in the US, more formally Sphinx moths

That's definitely a larva of the Sphinx moth family (Sphingidae). For your garden-variety Sphinx moths see:

Manduca qinquemaculata (Tomato Hornworm)
Manduca sexta (Tobacco Hornworm)

But of course, depending on what types of foliage are present around the pond, it could be any type of Sphinx moth larva. They are definitely quite an impressive group of moths!