Tag Archives: sphinx moth

Hornworms & a Female Hummingbird

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Hornworms are sphinx moth (hawk moth) caterpillars.
It’s a big beautiful moth. Dark in color and I’ve only seen them in the evening.
Below is a photo I took back in 2017.
mmm. Now that I look through photos in the search engines, I’m not sure this is a sphinx or hawk moth. It was a huge moth though and a pollinator. What kind do you think it is?
The sphinx moth is a pollinator and as is with our gardening methods we left the last 2 tomato plants for the nursery of their Hornworms.
There was originally 3 Hornworms left on the plants and then just these 2.
Then there was just 1 caterpillar and it ran out of cherry tomatoes, so I started feeding it store bought cherry tomatoes. It enjoyed them for a few days and then it disappeared. I figure it left to go into it’s pupae state. I hope that the 3 caterpillars, we let mature, mutate into some healthy pollinators next Spring.
One evening I was washing dishes and saw a wee female hummingbird land on the tomato cage near the last caterpillar. I took a photo through the glass and screen and so the quality isn’t great. However, the size comparison is unsettling. The caterpillar is almost as big as the hummingbird. Just think how dreadful it would be if the caterpillar wasn’t a vegan. 😉

Wishing you all a pleasant weekend!

 

 

 

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Wildlife Wednesday – camouflaged caterpillar, sphinx moth & trapdoor spider

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I was tending to my marigolds when I saw tiny petals moving around a bloom. You don’t usually see that type of activity in a marigold, so I watched it for a few minutes. I discovered that it was a caterpillar that had used marigold petals to camouflage itself. I got such a chuckle from see it.

One evening just after sunset, we were sitting on the back-porch. I saw what I thought was a hummingbird flying around and feeding on my daylilies. I commented to my husband that the hummingbird sure was up late and I’d never seen one fly after dark. He agreed.
I got my camera and tried to focus in on it and take a couple photos. Only one turned out pretty good and it wasn’t a hummingbird, it was a huge moth. Wow, if you know how big a daylily bloom is then you can kind of tell that this moth was quite large.
I looked on the internet and as best as I can tell, it’s some sort of a sphinx moth.

Last weekend, our mower’s drive belt broke. My husband used a leaf blower to clean the mower out before he started work on it to replace the belt. He called out for me to come and see the spider that had fell out of the hood. I hurried over and was surprised to see one of the biggest trapdoor spiders that I’ve ever seen. Its body was at least 3 cm long (a bit over an inch). With its legs it was even bigger and scarier.
I clicked off a photo of the trapdoor spider before my husband properly dispatched it.
I’ve decided not to post the trapdoor spider photo in this post out of respect to people who may be unsettled by seeing it. Instead, I’ve made a link to the photo. If you would like to see the scary creeper Click Here a photo should open in a separate tab or window (if I linked it right.)

It can be amusing, interesting and/or unsettling to notice some of the buglife that I don’t usually pay attention too. I’m glad my camera is usually with me so I can get photos to help me in internet searches to better identify them.

Have you seen any amusing, interesting or scary critters lately?

I hope your Wednesday is pest free and a good one.

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