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Monster Grub sighted!


nomoss

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A ribbed tickler? [:-))]

Or is that the same as a cockchafer? [;-)]

I asked a French friend and he was mystified, he said that in all his life he has never come across anything so bizarre, it must be foreign, he recognises the centimetres but not those other strange units!

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Looking at images online it wasn't a cockchafer or stag beetle larva. The skin was leathery looking with no hairs, the head not prominent, there was a suggestion of a spike on the tail end, and it was very mobile. The skin reminded me of a "leatherjacket", but much bigger and active than one of those.

It was travelling steadily across the concrete and ignored shallow puddles, simply continuing across them in a straight line. When I touched it it curled up in a half hearted way and continued in the same direction shortly afterwards. Maybe it was moving from below ground after been flooded out by the previous heavy rain.

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[quote user="Chancer"]

A ribbed tickler? [:-))]

Or is that the same as a cockchafer? [;-)]

[/quote]

Apparently Old English -

C o c k = Maleness

Chafer = To Gnaw

(So worse than you were thinking then [:D])

However;

"In the Middle Ages collecting the adult beetles was really the only way

that people could try to control their numbers and protect their crops.

In France, this gave rise to events that seem bizarre from a modern day

perspective. In 1320, Cockchafers were brought to court in Avignon and

sentenced to withdraw within three days into a specially designated

area, otherwise they would be outlawed. Subsequently, since they failed

to comply, they were collected en masse and killed." [:D]

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 You may have hit upon its name a Leatherjacket/Cranefly

 

[quote user="nomoss"]

Looking at images online it wasn't a cockchafer or stag beetle larva. The skin was leathery looking with no hairs, the head not prominent, there was a suggestion of a spike on the tail end, and it was very mobile. The skin reminded me of a "leatherjacket", but much bigger and active than one of those.

It was travelling steadily across the concrete and ignored shallow puddles, simply continuing across them in a straight line. When I touched it it curled up in a half hearted way and continued in the same direction shortly afterwards. Maybe it was moving from below ground after been flooded out by the previous heavy rain.

[/quote]
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After a bit of research, I have decided it is a hornworm, the larval stage of a hawk or sphinx moth, Sphingidae.

According to Wiki there are some 1450 species. Colour of larvae is very variable, but many pictures I have found are very similar in size and colour.

It could be a hummingbird hawk moth larva, as there are lots of these in our garden, even now, when it is getting colder and wetter, but the colour doesn't quite match illustrations I have found.

 

[IMG]http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab131/nomoss/Posted%20on%20Forums/hawkmothcaterpillar.jpg[/IMG]

 

[IMG]http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab131/nomoss/Posted%20on%20Forums/hummingbirdhawkmoth.jpg[/IMG]

 

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[quote user="nomoss"]

[quote user="gardengirl "]I think it could be a leatherjacket - crane fly larvae can measure up to 5cm!

[/quote]

But this feller is ten cm long, and almost two cm thick.

[/quote]

That shows me I shouldn't try to look at pics without my specs!

That hummingmoth is lovely - didn't know about them before seeing that pic.

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[quote user="nomoss"]

After a bit of research, I have decided it is a hornworm, the larval stage of a hawk or sphinx moth, Sphingidae.

According to Wiki there are some 1450 species. Colour of larvae is very variable, but many pictures I have found are very similar in size and colour.

It could be a hummingbird hawk moth larva, as there are lots of these in our garden, even now, when it is getting colder and wetter, but the colour doesn't quite match illustrations I have found.

 

[IMG]http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab131/nomoss/Posted%20on%20Forums/hawkmothcaterpillar.jpg[/IMG]

 

[IMG]http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab131/nomoss/Posted%20on%20Forums/hummingbirdhawkmoth.jpg[/IMG]

 

[/quote]
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[quote user="basquesteve"]Can you give the source of your photographs you original picture is nothing like a Hawkmoth larvea the Hummingbird  Hawkmoths is green with a tail[/quote]

I Googled "huge brown caterpillar". It was one of the images which came up.

http://talkrational.org/showthread.php?t=39461  Post no.15

Then I Googles "hawk moth"- check the images and the Wiki entry which come up.

I think there is enough similarity among the few larvae illustrated out of many hundreds of species of hawk moth to suggest the one I saw is a hawk moth larva of some kind.

As there are so many hummingbird hawk moths in our garden, I thought there might perhaps be a variety with brown larvae, but I mainly posted it because it is so amazing to see.

Edit. My daughter photographed one of the hummingbird moths with her expensive camera, and we saw the wings are more transparent than the picture I posted.

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Seems like there are several hovering hawk moths in France. This link shows larva of the "Sphinx du liseron" which looks very similar to our visitor (who we moved from the concrete pad to a corner of the garden..

Also shown is a hovering moth with transparent wings, "Sphinx-Gazé", like the one my daughter photographed.

http://aramel.free.fr/INSECTES13terter.shtml

If I find another one on whatever it eats maybe I'll try raising it to see what it becomes.

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