Unidentified catepillar
Location: Pennsylvania
October 20, 2010 7:32 pm
Wondering what this is? I got to page 23 and didn’t find it.
Signature: John Stella
Striped Morning Sphinx Caterpillar
Hi John,
This is the caterpillar of the White Lined Sphinx or Striped Morning Sphinx, Hyles lineata, a species that is found in all 48 of the continental United States as well as Mexico and Canada. It has a highly variable caterpillar, a trait that might contribute to its range and frequency since it is so adaptable. If you scroll down the species page on the Sphingidae of the Americas website, you will find a matching example of this unusual dark variation.
Striped Morning Sphinx Caterpillar
1
¶ Posted 21 October 2010 § ‡ ° Sphinx?
Location: East Texas
October 19, 2010 11:35 am
Hi!
We found this poor caterpillar in our koi pond in East Texas and rescued him before he drowned. We think it might be some kind of sphinx moth, but we aren’t sure.
Signature: Kate
Banded Sphinx Caterpillar
Hi Kate,
The caterpillar you rescued is that of a Banded Sphinx, Eumorpha fasciatus. This is a highly variable caterpillar and some individuals are green, some brown, and other have intricate markings like your individual. You can see these other variations on Bill Oehlke’s website Sphingidae of the Americas.
Caterpillar ID
Location: Near Tampa, FL
October 17, 2010 3:35 am
Found this caterpillar hanging out on an orange tree about 50 miles to the east of Tampa, FL in mid Octorber. Suspect it’s some kind of Sphinx moth.
Signature: Larry
Banded Sphinx Caterpillar
Hi Larry,
You encountered the caterpillar of the Banded Sphinx, Eumorpha fasciatus, which you may read about on the Sphingidae of the Americas website, which does not list citrus as a food plant. The Banded Sphinx has considerably variation in the color and markings of the caterpillar, and the color morph that is represented by your specimen is probably the most beautiful.
¶ Posted 17 October 2010 § ‡ ° October 11, 2010
When Daniel was filming the publicity video to demonstrate his on camera abilities to television producers, he was unable to locate any Tomato Bugs, the caterpillars of two different species of Sphinx Moths in the genus Manduca, in his garden. Undaunted, the video was shot without the starring bugs. Six weeks later, Daniel found at least six Carolina Sphinx Caterpillars, Manduca sexta, chomping on the leaves of the volunteer tomato plant in the back yard. Here is a photo of two of them. Perhaps he can convince the camera crew from Varmint Media to return.
Carolina Sphinx Caterpillars
¶ Posted 11 October 2010 § ‡ ° Sphinx moth caterpillar in October?
Location: Susquehanna Valley, PA
October 3, 2010 7:54 pm
Hi Bugman!
I work at a large greenhouse, so I see quite a few critters indoors and out. It’s always fun to try identifying bugs I don’t recognize and your website has come in handy many times. Whenever a coworker asks me about a bug, I always point them to your site first.
Although I’m familiar with tobacco and tomato hornworms, the one that I found today was neither. Perusing your site, I believe it’s a Whitelined Sphinx Moth caterpillar. I was surprised to find this over 3” long caterpillar crawling across the outside thruway, away from the fields and plants, especially since I rarely see any this late in the year. Also, aren’t these typically found in desert locales? I had time to snap one shot with my phone before making sure the caterpillar got out of harm’s way before it was run over.
I hope my guess is correct. Thanks for all the great info here!
Signature: CJ
Whitelined Sphinx Caterpillar
Dear CJ,
Your identification of the Whitelined Sphinx Caterpillar, Hyles lineata, is correct. The deserts of the Southwest are known for seasonal population explosions of these caterpillars when weather conditions and food requirements are ideal, but this is also the widest ranging Sphinx Moth in North America. Because the caterpillars can be so plentiful, they were an important food for the indigenous people of the southwest. The Whitelined Sphinx can be found in all 48 lower states as well as Mexico and Canada. The Data page on BugGuide shows the distribution of reports to that site, and Bill Oehlke’s website, Sphingidae of the Americas, has wonderful information on the species. The caterpillars will feed on a wide variety of plants including the greenhouse staple Fuschia.
¶ Posted 04 October 2010 § ‡ ° catepillar
Location: Kanto Plain, Japan
September 25, 2010 6:10 am
Hello, we live on a military base in Japan and I found a bunch of these guys snacking on my Impatiens. THey were passing up the begonias…but the impatiens were stripped clean. Any ideas?
Signature: Michelle
Impatiens Hornworm
Hi Michelle,
We had spent considerable time trying somewhat unsuccessfully to conclusively identify your Hornworm Caterpillar in the family Sphingidae, moths commonly called Hawkmoths or Sphinx Moths, before our search ended with a match that satisfies us. Your specimen somewhat resembles a dark morph of the caterpillar of the species Hippotion rosetta which we located on a Sphingidae of Japan website. There are better images of the caterpillar on the Sphingidae of the Eastern Palaearctic website, but the yellow bands visible on your specimen are not represented in the photos on that site. There are four other species in the genus listed on the Sphingidae of Japan website, but several do not include photos of the caterpillars. The caterpillar of Hippotion boerhaviae pictured on the Sphingidae of the Eastern Palaearctic website was another possibility. The Bedstraw Hawkmoth, Hyles gallii, is a wide ranging species with a highly variable caterpillar and it is native to Japan as evidenced by its inclusion in the Sphingidae of Japan website, and that caterpillar also shares some similar traits with your specimen. Then we found an exact match to your caterpillar, listed only as the Impatiens Hawk Moth Caterpillar on Flickr, but alas, there was no scientific name. We became excited because the plant in your photo is an impatiens. That thread led us to the Natural Japan website where we found the scientific name of the Impatiens Hawkmoth to be Theretra oldenlandiae. We then headed back to the Sphingidae of the Eastern Palaearctic website and found an exact match to your caterpillar with another common name of Taro Hornworm. Matching images of caterpillars can also be found on the Sphingidae of Japan website.
Impatiens Hornworm
4
¶ Posted 25 September 2010 § ‡ ° Catapiller
Location: St Marys Ohio 45885
September 24, 2010 8:51 pm
I found this catapiller last weekend and I can’t find what kind it is or what kind of butterfly/moth it will make?
Signature: Pat Striff
Achemon Sphinx Caterpillar
Hi Pat,
Just last week we posted another photo of this particular color morph of the caterpillar of an Achemon Sphinx, Eumorpha achemon, which we had identified on Bill Oehlke’s website Sphingidae of the Americas. Your caterpillar will metamorphose into a lovely Hawkmoth. Your photo nicely illustrates the caudal bump where typically the caudal horn is situated on most Hornworms, a common name given to the caterpillar of Hawkmoths. Many of the species in the genus Eumorpha shed their caudal horns in the early instar stages of the caterpillar so the mature caterpillar is hornless.
Thank YOU sooo much for YOUR response.
I got several shots of this caterpillar and even got a movie of it on my camera. It was moving rather quickly across the road.
Now I will look up the Hawkmoth and see what it looks like.
Again thank you.
¶ Posted 25 September 2010 § ‡ ° big white colorado caterpillar
Location: fort collins, colorado
September 18, 2010 11:49 am
We found this rather large caterpillar half buried in sand. Both ends of him look like heads, but i believe that his head is the flat end. I couldn’t find him on your website, and we were wondering what he is. He is about three inches long.
Signature: Thank you, Patrick
Sphinx Caterpillar
Hi Patrick,
We have tentatively identified your caterpillar as one of two possible species in the genus Eumorpha. BugGuide has a photo that looks nearly identical, and it is identified as the Typhon Sphinx, Eumorpha typhon, but Bill Oehlke’s excellent Sphingidae website does not list the species in Colorado, though it is found in Arizona. We needed to verify the location of Fort Collins on a map to see how close it is to Arizona, and we discovered is is in the north, not the southwest corner which would more thoroughly support our identification since insects really tend to ignore state and national borders. The similar looking caterpillar of the Achemon Sphinx, Eumorpha achemon, is found in Colorado according to Bill Oehlke’s Sphingidae of the Americas website, and this species has a greater range. So, though logic tells us that this must be the caterpillar of the Achemon Sphinx, we cannot totally disregard that it may be the Typhon Sphinx without contacting Bill Oehlke, so we are copying him to get his opinion.
Daniel,
It is Eumorpha achemon which is the only Eumorpha in North America that has the side panels appearing as if they are twisted dough (i.e. segmented but still continuous).
I will ask Patrick for a larger image and permission to post it to a webpage.
Bill Oehlke
¶ Posted 19 September 2010 § ‡ ° 
rss
I like This
