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Elephant Hawk Moth Caterpillar

I found this elephant hawk moth caterpillar today whilst strimming a garden in Liverpool. I think it was feeding on the willowherb. I've brought it back home because there was nothing left of the willowherb by the time we'd finished. Not strictly in St Helens (well, it is now!) but I've never seen one before and thought it was worth posting.

I've put some willowherb and fuscia leaves in for it, while I work out what to do with it!



Damian P

3 comments :

  1. Damian, lovely (?) pic; try contacting Andrew Bunting at InFocus, Martin Mere - he'll likely have an idea of what to do.
    John Watson

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  2. Saw one near Houghwood golf on the path up to the midden pile last year!

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  3. Cheers for the help John. I've done a bit of research and decided to try and rear it as a sort of project for the kids. So far, I've tried feeding it on both willowherb and fuscia and it wasn't having any of it. I've now transferred it to a box lined with kitchen paper with lots of oven dried willowherb leaves in for it to pupate. I've just checked and it's out of sight somewhere beneath the leaves. I can see that some of the leaves are stuck together with white thread so hopefully it's starting to pupate already. I've now got to leave it be for a few weeks and then can transfer it again once it's fully pupated. I'll keep you posted how it goes.

    Damian P

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