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Sphinx Moth Caterpillar

Eumorpha sp.

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-25.4284, -49.2733

Field Notes

Description:

Eumorpha (meaning "well formed") is a genus of moths in the Sphingidae family. The genus is mostly found in North and South America.

Notes:

Sphingidae is a family of moths (Lepidoptera), commonly known as hawk moths, sphinx moths and hornworms, that includes about 1,450 species.

Reference Links:

Eumorpha

Species ID Suggestions

Eumorpha sp.
bayucca
1

Comments (49)
Sergio Monteiro
MAyra, Ceherzog, Patty, Joshua, Sachin & Atul, thank you very much.
Atul
wow how did i miss this one , amazing congrats !
patty
Congratulations and beautiful spotting and series =)
MayraSpringmann
Wow, Sérgio, você esta terrivelmente incrível com suas capturas! Parabens!
Sergio Monteiro
To all people who made such nice comments about this series, thank you very much. Your appreciation and support renew my willingness of bring you some more beauties from my country. Just wait... See ya. :-)
LarsKorb
Congratulations, Sergio! Great spotting
Carol Snow Milne
Congratulations! So thrilled for you. I love your caterpillar. Great discovery and series.
CindyBinghamKeiser
Congratulations Sergio! This is an awesome spotting and series. Very well deserved my friend :)
Gerardo Aizpuru
Wow Wonderful series look at this guy Congratulations :):)
Sergio Monteiro
Yasser, thanks a lot for choosing this spotting as SOTD. I am honored for it. Auntnance, Maria and jgorneau, thank you for the nice comments. Xará, obrigado novamente por suas palavras tão calorosas, eu entendo, é nosso sangue lusitano (no meu caso, um pouquinho, mas ele está lá sim).
AntónioGinjaGinja
I must confess one thing,in last months i dont make comments on the spotting of the day because my emailbox(that is blocked) became full of comments on the spotting of the day,so i make a like and them i normaly comment another spotting of the same person,sorry people ,but my time is very short :) however this time i make a exception,it's a spotting of the of my buddy Sérgio :D how can i pass it with no comments :) super,hiper,"Well formed " :) spotting Sérgio,great colours,perfect photo tecnic,awesome creature(more alien than this is impossible:) and great details,you even make a super ampliation to show the ,i presume,parasite of caterpillar,congratulations my friend and thanks for sharing the beauty of your fantastic BRASIL Xára :D já sabes tou feliz:)aquele abraço meu irmão muitos parabéns
Yasser
Sergio, this awesome caterpillar has earned you a well deserved Spotting of the Day! Thanks for all the wonderful contributions and thanks for making new Project Noah community members feel at home. We're looking forward to your 2,000th spotting which will put you in the most elite PN group alongside Malcolm and Cindy. "This Sphinx Moth caterpillar is of the genus Eumorpha (meaning "well formed") and is part of the Sphingidae family. " Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/projectnoah/posts/419222218120755 Twitter: http://twitter.com/projectnoah/status/224221976552677376
bayucca
v e r y cool and very tired! Ciao!
bayucca
The meaning was that you must always be careful to take what I guess, think, might propose etc.. The more I ID the bigger is the risk that I might be wrong ... ;-), so my remark with your courage was a joke!
Sergio Monteiro
Ok, bayucca, I'll be more careful in the future. Tx anyway.
bayucca
For a shy guess you are quite courageous! In the meanwhile you should know the style of my ID comments. Sometimes I am very careful with my wording...
Sergio Monteiro
Bayucca, I came to Pandorus ID trough a search on Google - surely not the best way to do it. I thought the other caterpillars I found there didn't match this one's colour (it didn't happen to me that caterpillars change colour while growing). So, I'll take your sugestion, based on the links you provided. About the small fly on the cat's head, I think it was just sucking it, because the fly went out when I started to shoot. Well, at least I hope so, it would be a pity such a beauty to eaten from inside... Brrrrr. Anyway, thank you for your suport.
bayucca
Yours might be Eumorpha analis: http://www.flickr.com/photos/16504650@N00/4495207944/in/photostream http://www.flickr.com/photos/16504650@N00/4494567605/in/photostream/ http://www.silkmoths.bizland.com/eanalis.htm But this is only a very shy guess!
bayucca
I apologize, but it is not Pandorus, since this one is a North American species. It is another Eumorpha sp. and I am glad, that my very quick guess wasn't out of the row. Species is tricky. You should know in which instar yours is. Caterpillars has the unpleasant attidue to change several times their colors. If you look at most pictures of Eumorpha you usually will not see the fine and long "tail" which I guess would be for distracting birds away from the essential head. Yours is in "full blossom" and from the size it might be a earlier stage. So the colors might be changeing again. I think not to green, but maybe darker and more brownish? The pose is a typical threatening pose after being disturbed. This might have been the little fly/insect on the head. If so, unfortunately this might also be the beginning of being parasited. If I was the parasiting insect, however, I would not take the head as an entrance port but the back. The caty should live as long as the other insect larvae are big enough to leave the dying caterpillar. If you take the head I could imagine that growing larvae might interact with brain and feeding apparillos and for feeding I think you still need a little bit of brain ;-)... Do you know anything about food the food plant? This could also be a clue for closer determination. There are some which would feed from only one plant. Usually they feed from several plants.
Sergio Monteiro
@ ShaumingLo: Thank you @ Rubens: Muito obrigado @ Goody: Yes, it may well be true.
bayucca
Just an IDea. I will dream of this one... Cheers!
Aaron_G
The smaller creature may be the reason the caterpillar is eliciting this arching behavior.
Sergio Monteiro
I added an enlarged detail of the fly that is in the caterpillar's "head".
Sergio Monteiro
Ismael, I think it is a small mosquito. In latter pictures it is gone.

Spotted for Missions

Mission
Caterpillars of Parana, Brazil
Mission
Arthropods parasitised by other arthropods

Tags

Photographed
PublishedJanuary 20, 2012

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