deaths head hawk moth & giant atlas moths

[julie62]

I wish they'd all grow up - I cant stand the excitement - they are brill

[Mo]

Are the others still pupating?
I didn't know they wriggled till we kept some at Playgroup (the boring white sort, I found the eggs on my cabbage plant).
I remember as a child finding a pupa just hatching on the hedge on and watching it come out and harden off.

[ock]

Are the others still pupating?
I didn't know they wriggled till we kept some at Playgroup (the boring white sort, I found the eggs on my cabbage plant).
I remember as a child finding a pupa just hatching on the hedge on and watching it come out and harden off.

yeah still pupating, should be any time now


popped up to a blokes house a few miles from me last night to have a look at his polly tunnel where he keeps and breeds butterflies, came home with a load of spurge hawk moth eggs and about a dozen yellow swallowtail butterfly caterpillars oops !

[ock]

the atlas moth are now in their 4th instar (skin)









4 of the spurge hawk moth eggs have hatched



and these are the yellow swallowtails, the one on the left is an instar (moult/skin) ahead of the other one

[Gwenoakes]

Do these latest ones live any longer than the first ones, Ock?

[ock]

the very first ones, the deaths heads, can live for a couple of months if you keep feeding them honey, the second ones, the atlas, are 5 to 7 days, the spurge moths are only a week or so and the swallowtail butterflies are a couple of weeks I think

[ock]

pic`s of spurge hawk moths

and some pic`s of the yellow swallowtail butterflies

[ock]

here`s an update on my bugs

the swallowtails







the spurge moths



and the atlas moths, my big fat babies











I don`t think the deaths heads are going to hatch till the spring now, they need a cold spell then for it to warm up again to trigger the hatching

[p.penn]

I am not sure how I would feel about handling such a humungous caterpillar! It may turn nasty

[rhubarb93]

The spurge moths are very pretty, aren't they?
Why is one of the atlas ones wearing a bonnet?

[ock]

Why is one of the atlas ones wearing a bonnet?

you talking about the first photo ? looks like it`s come from the little house on the prairie

[manda]

They are amazing...who'd have thought they could be so beautiful?

[Gwenoakes]

Ugly ducklings turning into beautiful swans.......

[ock]

two of the atlas caterpillars have started to turn into cocoons today

[HedgeHugger]

How long before they emerge?
Those cocoons look massive.


Changing the subject a little, what is their poo like?
I found a strange thing that I thought was possibly a turd on the path today, and when I went out later to feed the fish I spotted an elephant hawk moth caterpillar, then another, then another of the strange turds. Putting 2 and 2 together (2 no.2's *snigger*) I worked out they were caterpillar droppings! they have an interesting form to them. I did a google check and it seems I am right.

Every pet/wildlife/animal forum I'm a member of discusses poo at some time or another.