When picking our potatoes today, this ?cocoon? of dirt opened up. A funny story is my husband brought it in to me, and I saw this thing sticking out of the tiny cave in the dirt. I thought he was playing a joke on me and it was one of the potatoes so I pulled it out and it started to move -

I put it in the insect app I have and it says it’s a typhoon spinx moth/hawk moth, but it says it is from Mexico / Arizona so not sure if this is right. The insect app is far from perfect, but usually steers me in the right direction. It is amazing to see how the dirt was made into it’s cocoon, at least I think that is what it is. It looks like it has a tail, but my husband thinks that is the front end. The part that moves is where the rings are. It is about 3-4” long, not including the tail. We stuck it back into the tiny dirt cave and put the whole thing into a small cardboard box.

wow!
I don't know what it is, hummingbird moth larvae, maybe?
fascinating!

Yes - I would say it is a hummingbird hawk moth larvae.

Yes, thanks! I watched a few YouTube videos of lifecycle of hummingbird and hawk moths, but they didn’t have the tail, although one did. Not sure why some have a tail and some don’t. This article appears to be the best I’ve found and it does show and talk about the tail, they call a shepherd’s crook.

https://ugaurbanag.com/hummingbirds-don ... -moths-do/

If left alone, this article says it would have emerged in the spring, but being in our house, it will probably emerge sooner. So I may find a place for this guy outside .

I thought pretty fascinating also, Jmiller .

Just an update. We’ve kept this little guy in a closed box in our garage since we found it last September. Yesterday I saw a hummingbird moth on the barn door, they are so beautiful. Every time I got my camera, it was gone, but it made me think of ours. So….



Now it’s up in the livingroom. This is the tank that we rescued all the lizards (mostly babies) we found in our garage winter of 2020 which we let go last May. We over wintered about 14 lizards, so two tanks, one for 2 adults and the other tank for the kids. I wanted give the two tanks away, but Norbert wouldn’t let me - appears he knows me better than myself…lol.



I may need to redo the pine needle idea. Started to think it might be stabbed when it hatches. Still researching, many great videos on YouTube of sphinx hatches. There was a guy who had one hatch in his hand. Some, or most, may find this gross, but I really find it interesting I so hope this little guy of ours makes it.

Oh yeah and that thing that looks like a tail is not a tail but it’s antenna- actually it eats with it- so when it hatches it comes out the end with the tail looking thing. How I know it’s alive is the end part moves. So interesting.

It is a sphinx moth (tomato worm) if we see them in our garden they are dead.

https://www.birdsandblooms.com/gardenin ... inx-moths/

Oh no a sphinx moth Bummer. Where there is one, there are more.

Gia, you will need to be super vigilant keeping an eye out for them. They are VERY destructive.

I know, but they are so beautiful once they become a moth and at that point beneficial for pollination. Problem is when they lay eggs and become the hornworms. We will watch out for that.

it sure looks like sphinx moth larva according to this link snowman posted



turns into hummingbird moth

https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/fiel ... hawk-moths


here's one I was fast enough to catch a pic of in my front garden

Beautiful, Angela. I just saw this as I didn’t know there was an update (my fault). Thanks.

I came to the topic, because someone had a birthday yesterday So cool. I was getting worried, because it seemed too long. The cocoon kept getting darker and darker, almost a reddish/black, hence my worry. I guess that is a sign it is about to hatch. I wish I was there to see it. What is so weird is that it appears there is a tiny little caterpillar. It doesn’t make sense, but of course, I will be watching this little one now

Thanks Snowman and Cooknthyme, I read your posts to my hubbie, Norbert, and now he is insisting I don’t release this sphinx moth here, but drive down to the national forest (where we previously relocated the bat) to release it. Lol… we are dealing with a ground squirrel family here destroying the garden so he is very sensitive right now. We have caught one and once we have the Mom and the other sibling we will be relocating them .

Here are some photos. Yay! Check out the huge eyes on this guy.

Beautiful...thank you for sharing this little miracle of transformation!

We have many species of hummingbird/hawk/sphinx moths...I wonder if yours is a Five-spotted Hawk Moth:

https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/spe ... uemaculata

Their host plants are in the nightshade family, so yes, tomatoes and potatoes - but we have native nightshades as well. For what it's worth, I've grown potatoes here for decades and never had an issue with hornworms. Here's a little more about its ecology: https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ ... uemaculata

And here's a different species that I found two weeks ago near the north fork of Deer Creek (possibly a Small-eyed Sphinx, Paonias myops):

Pretty cool, thanks for the info Stormy. I think you are right about the 5 spotted hawk moth, sure looks like it.