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What's this?

smlsml Posts: 2
in Wildlife gardening
Hello. I've just found this rather scary looking Caterpillar like crawly in my garden. He's happily creeping along the slate chips. But does anyone know what it is???

Posts

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 28,837
    Privet hawk moth caterpillar?
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 50,307
    I think that's it too @Obelixx. 
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 28,837
    Ooh!  I'm usually hopeless at insects and their larvae.

    Round here the ones with wings are either too fast or too small to spot details, let alone take pics and the caterpillars are mostly cabbage whites.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
  • The Bird LadyThe Bird Lady Posts: 188
    edited October 2020
    He's gorgeous, let's hope he can hide from predators for a while!  I wondered whether he is a Hummingbird Hawk Moth caterpiller - here's a photo of one we had last year in our hedge.
  • B3B3 Posts: 24,479
    Do you let a caterpillar get on with it's life/ death without interference or do you put it somewhere you consider to be safe and thus deprive a predator of a meal it might need to survive?
    A question conservationists must have to deal with all of the time. I'm glad I don't have to play god too often.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • smlsml Posts: 2
    Thank you everyone. I think the general consensus is some sort of Hawk Moth. Hopefully he found shelter.
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