Searching for Pupation Location.
When I find this large 8cm long larva crawling out onto the middle of a road on 23rd August, it is almost certainly looking for a good spot to shelter during its complete metamorphosis into adult moth. I bring her home to give her shelter and observe development.
Overnight Feeding.
Overnight, “Nellie” munches her way through some rosebay willowherb leaves. Next day she stops eating. She is looking for a sheltered place to rest up and crawls inside a small flower pot. I’ve placed her inside a large tupperware container in the porch (this room will become pretty cold in winter) I notice a large blob of green fluid on the floor. She starts shrinking in size from here on.
Shrinking.
On 26th August Nellie is quite shrunken and no longer crawls. The only movements are jerky sideways ones.
Officially Pupating.
What a thrill to wake up on the last day of August and find Nellie a beautiful chryalis. The green-coloured front end is spectacular.
Watch This Space!
I’ve learned that elephant hawk-moths pupate over winter.
This is so amazing. I wish I had been there to see the pupa. How very exciting. I can’t wait to see the moth. I hope you do not have to wait all winter to see it.
How amazing. I would not have thought to bring her home.
Thank you for the update. It is wonderful to know that Nellie has transformed herself into a chrysalis. My congrats to both of you!
Hi! I had my elephant hawk moth around the same time as you, she came out of her cocoon in April! Your updates helped me since when I found the caterpillar in the garden and I had her for a few days I started to get worried when she shrunk, and then I found info here! Please update soon, I hope everything’s healthy! I watered the cocoon of mine nearly everyday so please do that! She came out bright and healthy!
Wow, Grace! Thank you for sharing this. You have a great success. I did update a wee while ago when I reported that sadly mine failed to emerge. If you would like to write a guest blog with photos, and what you did re the watering and housing caterpillar I would love to publish it.
Hello, I found one elephant-hawk moth caterpillar few days ago on my terrasse and took it in, made a nice ambient in a transparent box with soil, leaves, a bit of an apple. She was, Betty, crawling around for almost 2 days and then this morning a didn’t her anymore around. I thought she left the box, but I was too curious so I lifted up some leaves and flower bits, and there I found her all shrank and just occasionally moving in jerk sideways moves. By your experiance I probably should wait and see. I would like to make a photo but I’m not sure if I could touch her now or just leave it how it is. Any advice? Thanx. 🙂
Wow! how exciting Zina. You could take some photos if you slide a bit of paper under her to move her. Then I would leave her to pupate with air circulating in the container. You could cover the top of the container with mesh. She should emerge from her chrysalis around April next year. I will be a good idea to create a little bit of humidity from time to time by spraying a little water into the container. Perhaps on the soil? I would love to see the photos and hear how she develops. So, if you would like to write a guest blog sometime I would like to publish it on beelistener. Thank you for sharing your lucky find.
Yes, I will send some pics soon, wow I didn’t know it takes so long to transform but this is all exciting and I will try to make sure her ambient is clean with fresh leaves and moisture. I will spray the inside regularly. She now shrank a half of her size and covered with soil under the leaves and flowers but I’ll try gently to open and take a pic, hope I won’t disturb her :).
All I can say is the larva is SUPER cute. Almost looks knitted! LOL
Hello Ruz. Thanks for commenting. Yes the larva is amazing.
I agree, Ruz.
Just this afternoon 5th September 2023 in North Yorkshire we found an Elephant Hawk Moth caterpillar out on the garden path in full sun. It looked as though it had either been trodden on or exploded. There was such an huge amount of what I now know is expelled food contents. It didn’t move and we thought it dead.
Walking past it again it lifted its head moving it from side to side.
So between us my friend Bear and I tucked it under the runner beans. We checked it periodically always thinking it would be dead but it still would move its head.
Bear had to leave and I started reading up which caterpillar it was and tried putting in various questions to explain its behaviour. Then your lovely blog conversation came up!
I’ve put our caterpillar into an egg box which was all that was small enough with a handful of soil and leaf and she’s now on a cool windowsill. Is there anything else I should do?
Thanks for your helpful site!
Hello Lyn,
How exciting finding an Elephant Hawk Moth caterpillar. Unless you want to study its development, and hopefully be there in spring when it emerges as a moth, I would place it back under the runner beans. Expelling gut contents probably means it is close to pupating. During pupation, I should have kept the one I found moist and sprayed it lightly with water from time to time. It didn’t emerge as a moth and I felt a bit bad about that but it was fascinating watching it shrink before developing its case and becoming a chrysalis. Sorry not to be more helpful. Best wishes, Ann.