Steve’s picture of a caterpillar in his “Getting Out” post reminded me of this one we saw while out in the field with Steve & Libby in Magdalena last month. Afraid I have no idea as to who this fellow might be, though he is an attractive shade of green. Caterpillar enthusiasts, grab your guidebooks!
It is one of the Sphingids– sphinx or “hummingbird hawk ” moths.
Some are common pests (tomato hornorm). Others are more exotic. One– I believe in Madagascar– was discovered and filmed recently with an enormous proboscis or feeding tongue. Darwin had predicted its existence based on the the existence of a certain deep narrow flower!
Uhh— that’s tomato hornWORM.
Pest or not, I like to see the sphinx moths around our flox in the summer. They are actually cool looking insects. Many guests at first mistake them for hummingbirds.
We’ve never had a problem with them in our garden.
One evening this summer, a sphinx moth was feeding on a flower that was a preferred by a hummingbird. The hummingbird flew in and gave the moth sharp rap with its beak.