Silent Earth by Dave Goulson

Author:Dave Goulson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harper
Published: 2021-07-23T00:00:00+00:00

The Elephant Hawk Moth

Caterpillars are tasty morsels, the favoured food for many adult birds attempting to feed their hungry nestlings. As a result, they have evolved a bewildering array of disguises. Many swallowtail caterpillars look remarkably like black and white dollops of bird dropping. Many caterpillars pull off remarkable impressions of sticks, while the caterpillar of the lobster moth resembles an ant when it is small, and a squat spider when it is larger (an odd disguise, since many birds eat spiders). The caterpillars of the emerald moth of Arizona have two different morphs. In the spring they look remarkably like the oak catkins on which they feed, while the second generation, which is found in summer when the catkins have fallen, instead resembles a stick. My favourite is the elephant hawk moth, perhaps because I have fond memories of finding the caterpillars feeding on willowherbs as a child. When fully grown, the large brownish caterpillar looks a little like the trunk of an elephant – not much of a disguise in England, you might think – but when disturbed it puffs up a forward section of its body, expanding a pair of eye spots complete with pupils that give the overall impression of a rearing snake.

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