Whaterpiller?
Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
August 13, 2011 5:03 pm
Ok I live in fairbanks Alaska it’s almost fall/our winter so you don’t really see all that many bugs around. But we found this guy he’s about 3in long brown with yellow spots and a spine tail thing and his head was the little thing.
Signature: ~Tif
Bedstraw Hawkmoth Caterpillar
Hi Tif,
Your caterpillar is a Hornworm, the common name given to the caterpillars of the Hawkmoths or Sphinx Moths in the family Sphingidae. Hornworm is a reference to the caudal horn which most all members of the family possess. When we are trying to identify New World Sphingiids, we generally turn to the easily searchable Sphingidae of the Americas Website where you can search by country and state. There are only five species reported in Alaska, which makes the search quite simple. This is the Bedstraw Hawkmoth Caterpillar, Hyles gallii, and the Sphingidae of the Americas site indicates: “Hyles gallii ranges coast to coast in Canada (into the Yukon) and southward along the Rocky Mountains into Mexico. It is also widely distributed throughout Europe and Asia.” One might think that with only five species of Sphinx Moths in Alaska, identification of this caterpillar would be easy, but the identification is complicated by the variations in color among caterpillars, including a green variation and a black morph. You can see a photo of the adult Bedstraw Hawkmoth from our archives.
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Can someone please tell me why or how I had one of these guys in my driveway when they’re suppose to be native to Alaska and I live in northeast Pa.
Insects do not obey any human laws when it comes to crossing borders. The range of the Bedstraw Hawkmoth, according to BugGuide, includes Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania sightings page of the Sphingidae of the Americas website we cited in our original posted response also indicates that the Bedstraw Hawkmoth is found in Pennsylvania.
Is the Bedstraw Hawkmoth poisonous?
My friend sent me a photo of this caterpillar today. It was very pink/purple as it has been feeding on a profusely growing plant called Fireweed.
Thank you for providing an ID
I saw a Bedstraw Hawkmoth Caterpillar crawling across my car port in Greer, SC… was surprised to see it come from Alaska… So glad I looked it up… strange looking caterpillar.
I just saw one of these in my driveway and I live in NH…….very unique looking caterpillar!
I just saw this caterpillar at the Town Office in Stratford, NH. 12:47pm 09.26.2018
I just found one of these bedstraw Hawk moths caterpillars in Chautauqua County in Western New York. Funny the name bedstraw since our fields are being taken over by bedstraw plant. It would be nice if they were to eat all the bed straw in our fields.