Acherontia atropos aka Death's Head Hawk Moth in a green form. They also come in yellow and purple.
I've never actually seen an adult moth of this famed creature of popular folklore and although they are native to South Africa, I was surprised to find this beauty in my garden. They are so big, some people who don't know better ask if Hawk Moth caterpillars are small snakes... Easily as big as my index finger, it sits comfortably in the palm of my hand.
Hawk Moth caterpillars also have funky little curled tails, apparently the tails scare off predators although these large caterpillars rest during the day relying on their camouflage. At night, they get munching and when you have a caterpillar this size, you wake up one morning and realise that an entire plant has been stripped of its leaves over the past few days. These caterpillars eat plants belonging to the nightshade family and are fond of potato leaves. This dude was probably snacking on the eggplants in my vegetable garden, I found him in that vicinity.
Sadly, all is not well in this creature's world and it will never complete its life-cycle. If you look at the large black spots with white centres on its skin, they are not part of the camouflage, he's been stung numerous times by a Braconid wasp.
Braconid wasps are not parasites but parasitoids, the difference being that a parasite lives within a host without killing it but a parasitoid causes the death of the host. The female injects her eggs under the caterpillar's skin and they hatch out and feed on the living tissues of the worm until they are ready to pupate. They bore their way out of the caterpillar and spin small cocoons on the caterpillar's skin. By the time the young wasps are ready to hatch out of their cocoons, the caterpillar is barely alive and will eventually die of starvation. Perhaps you have seen unfortunate caterpillars like the one below: although it's still alive, it will wander around like a zombie and eventually die.
.jpg)
Author: Alex Popovkin, Bahia, Brazil Source - [Wikipedia commons]: (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Silk_cocoons_of_parasitoid_wasps_on_Manduca_sexta_paphus,Sphingidae-Flickr-_Alex_Popovkin,_Bahia,Brazil(1).jpg)
Although farmers welcome these wasps killing the caterpillars on their crops, I don't mind the occasional hawk moth in my vegetables, the adult moths lay only one egg at a time and I didn't notice damage to the eggplants. I put this unfortunate creature in the creeper and left it to go about its business, I'm not a believer in disrupting natural processes out of sentiment.
Sources:
Identification: Field Guide to Insects of South Africa, 2004 updated edition by Picker, Griffiths and Weaving published by Struik
Read more about Death's Head Hawk Moths on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%27s-head_hawkmoth
Fascinated by these guys - we get a LOT of hawkmoths here in Chiang Mai, Thailand (where I live) and yes, the caterpillars are incredible. Let me tell you first hand, ONE of these guys can eat every leaf from a 2 foot tall gardenia plant OVERNIGHT. I have daily hawkmoth caterpillar patrol at certain times of the year, and try to rehome them in open land near our home.
Lovely post.
Thanks! Yes they can really decimate plants but I have a soft spot for them anyway
Me too. I do early morning caterpillar patrol and rehome them. 🙂 The hawkmoths they turn into are HUGE and also STUNNING.
Thanks @blacklux!
What a beautiful creature! Too bad...
I sometimes find tomato hornworms in the garden with the same affliction
yes the poor things are fair game for the wasps
The photos really bring me into a world that I don't ever see. We think of these creatures as creepy but upon closer inspection, they are in fact absolutely beautiful!
The Sphynx moth family are magnificent
I've never heard of them. Thank you for telling me.
And the photos are amazing .
Thanks, the big caterpillars need warm climates
Wow. I had no idea they were so pretty. Have you looked into the habits of the adult moth? I think that they sneak into bee hives at night. They have pheromone camouflage that keeps the bees from attacking them while they drink the nectar.
Yes I have read about that, they are such interesting creatures
What a beauty!
Amazing shot!
What a cruel world. What a horrible way to die. To have something eating you from inside until you are dead. It gives me the shivers just reading it.
nature is diabolical sometimes
haha... it is true. 🙂
CONGRATULATIONS!! and thank you for creating wonderful, original content on Hive.
Please share and support our curation, and share some Hive-Love to the other posts selected too.
EARTH HEALING is a Natural Medicine project which supports the regeneration & healing of Mother Earth on HIVE
Discord II Community**
thank you!
What a beauty. As a kid I collected them, knew a spot where they had many. 😍💕
I hope that these wasps do not lay their eggs under the skin of people. I think it will be very unpleasant.
no, only in caterpillars
I don't understand how you take these things in your hand. I'm afraid of the insects since childhood.
You are the second person to say that to me. I have loved insects since childhood, they fascinate me
My sister is also like you. She loves snakes and insects.
WoW! Incredible creature!
Wow those are even bigger than the tomato horn worms I feed to Carl the Vinegaroon. I feel for the poor worms that get the wasp egg infestations.
Yes, there's something fundamentally distasteful about the idea
Great post and photos!
Beautiful caterpillar, I have not seen this :-)))
Thank you! I am glad to see you join us on Hive :)
What a shame the beautiful colored caterpillar will eventually die before it’s life cycle is complete because of the wasp.
It's all part of the bigger cycle. Wasps are an extremely diverse and interesting bunch of predators