- Joined
- Dec 12, 2005
- Messages
- 749
Was outside earlier and saw my cat paying a lot of attention to some leaves so went over to see what she was looking at. Found this guy. I have a big ol' field guide to British/European insects which I bought a few weeks ago and haven't used yet so I cracked it open and tried to find out what it is, but alas he's not in there.
I'm guessing it's a sphingidae (Hawk Moth) as they are the only ones with the basic shape he's got including the horn on his butt. But none of the ones in the book have similar colouring, they're all green and brown.
This guy is about 2" long and a little thinner than my pinky finger. Blue/grey colouring on top with tiny white spots, and fleshy pink underneath. He has a single bright blue horn and some orange blobs on his back end and a weird shaped head, kind of like a reversed tear-drop. When disturbed he flicks himself around quite violently.
At the moment I have him in a tupperware pot for ease of photographing. I am interested in his ID but also can anyone tell me how easy he would be to care for until he pupates? He's being quite active at the moment and I'd like to keep hold of him and watch him mature, but I don't want to risk cacking it up and killing him. Any idea what kind of habitat and food I should provide? Do caterpillars like it moist or dry, warm or cool etc?
Thanks for any info. Here's the pics.
This is his head. He was moving around quite a bit by this point so it's a bit blurry, sorry.
I'm guessing it's a sphingidae (Hawk Moth) as they are the only ones with the basic shape he's got including the horn on his butt. But none of the ones in the book have similar colouring, they're all green and brown.
This guy is about 2" long and a little thinner than my pinky finger. Blue/grey colouring on top with tiny white spots, and fleshy pink underneath. He has a single bright blue horn and some orange blobs on his back end and a weird shaped head, kind of like a reversed tear-drop. When disturbed he flicks himself around quite violently.
At the moment I have him in a tupperware pot for ease of photographing. I am interested in his ID but also can anyone tell me how easy he would be to care for until he pupates? He's being quite active at the moment and I'd like to keep hold of him and watch him mature, but I don't want to risk cacking it up and killing him. Any idea what kind of habitat and food I should provide? Do caterpillars like it moist or dry, warm or cool etc?
Thanks for any info. Here's the pics.
This is his head. He was moving around quite a bit by this point so it's a bit blurry, sorry.
