Strange Caterpillar from the woodpile
Location: Northeastern Pensylvania
February 25, 2011 10:26 am
Hi! Firstly, I LOVE wtb, I just found it a few days ago, and I’m practically obsessed with learning about the different kinds of bugs. I’ve always been a bug lover, and this past fall when I was helping my dad stack wood in the woodshed, when I found two awesome bugs in the course of one day. The first is a beetle looking thing, I thought he was just awesome, So I took him inside and snapped some pictures before I let it back on the woodpile. I’ve lived here my whole life and never seen anything like this! It did pinch ahold of my dad when he was poking it (silly man) and apparently it hurt pretty bad. But he just pulled it off and put it back on the wood, laughing at how dumb of an idea it was to poke it. The second little guy came crawling off one of the logs. It made me a little nervous, as I was ”stung” by a big green spiky caterpillar when I was younger, but all in all he was only concerned with munching on the leaf I put in the bowl for him. He was really cool, and I took him inside the house to photograph him, then let him go back were he was on the woodpile. I never saw what he hatched into though. Any idea what this guy is, and what he may have turned into?
Signature: Liz
Dear Liz,
Thank you for your highly entertaining and very sweet email. Your caterpillar is a Bedstraw Hawkmoth Caterpillar or Gallium Sphinx, Hyles gallii, which we confirmed on the Sphingidae of the Americas website. There you may read a lengthy account of the caterpillar and adult moth including details of its life cycle.
Thanks! 🙂 Mystery solved!
Liz
I found 3 BedStraw Hawkmoth’s today and would like to see them change, but don’t want to kill them in the process. I found them on the edge of a dirt road. What should I supply them for food? Water? Will they survive inside or should I just let them go?
We found some of these during a hike today in Lebanon, CT.
Why do bedstraw hawk moths have something that resembles a stinger on their behind?? I have one that my daughter found in our driveway.
Are you talking about the caterpillar or the moth? Caterpillars have a caudal horn that is not a stinger.
The caterpillar. That makes sense. Thank you