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Hello,

I am new to this forum which I discovered a couple of days ago whilst trying to identify two caterpillars in my garden. I would be very grateful if anyone could help identify them. I have trawled as many previous posts as possible, but came up with nothing.

They were spotted walking amongst the plants in the margins of my pond! They are both about 3 inches long and nearly a half inch in diameter. One was munching on a marsh marigold and the other was on Menyanthes (but no evidence of eating it yet). I wouldn't have thought these were their normal diet? There is a gleditsia and pine tree nearby and many different shrubs and perennials that they could have come from. They were easily spotted every day last week (in the pond margins) but no sign of them today. I have had elephant hawk-moths and poplar hawk-moths in the garden before but these caterpillars don't quite match photos of ones I have seen in books or on the internet. Could they both be from the same species - the markings are similar although one is bright green and the other brown in tone; perhaps it is older and nearing the pupation stage?

Many thanks for your help,
Jonathan

Could it be the green variant of the Elephant Hawk Moth? I believe they can sometimes be green as well as the elephant's trunk grey from which they get their name. The markings (as opposed to the ground colour) are pretty well identical.

Dave

Hi Jonathan,
This is the (less common) green form of the Elephant Hawkmoth caterpillar.
BWs, Neil

Thank you both very much for confirming the identification of the caterpillars as those of the Elephant Hawk Moth!

Regards,
Jonathan