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Dog-looking caterpiller (Maui, Hawaii)
Ah Ha!
I am on your website now and was wondering if it may be a type of borer beetle. Very cool! I have a caterpillar photo to show you as well. I know we have some very large moths (the size of bats) here and I can only imagine that this could be from one of those types of species. The caterpillar head/face looked a little like a dog. This is the only caterpillar like this that we have ever seen here. It whipped strongly when nudged so we didn’t touch it. Unfortunately it died within a day of being in the glass jar so we added water to it, agitated lightly to wash away the small green dotted saliva stuff and put it on the driveway for better photos.Thanks for having such a great site! Living in the tropics for all these years has been easier with your site to help identify all the creatures we discover!
With aloha,
Michelle
Kihei, Maui, Hawaii

Hi Michelle,
This is the caterpillar of the Oleander Hawkmoth, Deilephila nerii or Daphnis nerii. The caterpillar looks like it might be ready to pupate, and perhaps is not really dead.

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