Neal 1,930 Posted June 20, 2015 Report Share Posted June 20, 2015 No photos I'm afraid as it always takes me ages to work out how to put my photos onto photobucket and then transfer them onto here but... last August my six year old son, Oscar, found a magnificent looking beast of a caterpillar in his vegetable patch/digging pit/dinosaur enclosure. I knew I'd seen one before but had to look it up in my Collins book to recall it was a privet hawkmoth caterpillar. The year before we'd hatched out a red admiral we found on our stinger-nettles so decided to try the same. Unfortunately, following some research, I discovered they pupate underground. However, I remembered there being a topic a month or two before on here about hawkmoths so decided to see if anybody had any ideas. Following J Darcy's advice (I won't go into all the ins and outs now: suffice to say it worked) we've spent the last nine months with a cocoon the size of a buzzard pellet in a plastic tub full of leaves. About a fortnight ago, as there'd been no sign of movement for a while, I reread my moth books and noted that they liked honeysuckle. Presuming that they could, somehow or other, detect or smell them from underground I moved it into the shed as our honeysuckle was just starting to flower. Then, last Friday, I returned home from work to hear a strange whirring noise in the shed. I've seen a few hawkmoths in the past including the privet but that still doesn't detract from the wow factor every time you see one again. Oscar was so excited and I have several photos of it crawling all over him, as it was still slightly damp and not yet able to fly, and a video of him releasing it onto our honeysuckle. I think that'll be one of those memories he keeps forever so thanks again to J Darcy for the advice. N.B. there was a thread the week before last about strange animal events or experiences before thunderstorms and this happened that evening. In addition to that my brother, who lives in Kent, had three male stag beetles fly into his garden on the same evening. 6 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
J Darcy 5,871 Posted June 20, 2015 Report Share Posted June 20, 2015 Glad it turned out ok matey. The emergence is down to temperature..... 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Neal 1,930 Posted June 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2015 Thanks again! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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