2017 May 2

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  Last September, Gordon Hart found two (different) demonstration-size caterpillars within a few minutes and a few feet of each other in his Highlands garden.  One of them was Cerisy’s Eyed Hawk Moth.  The caterpillar can be seen on this site for the date 2016 September 16, and the pupa on September 26.  The adult moth ecloded (emerged) today, and is seen below.  Below that is a Cabbage White – also emerged from its chrysalis today.

  An interesting tidbit of information about Smerinthus and its near relatives in the Tribe Smerinthini:-  One often thinks of a hawk moth as having a very long proboscis (haustellum).  After all, did not Darwin successfully predict the existence of a moth with an exceptionally long haustellum capable of sucking nectar from a Madagascar orchid with an unusually deep nectary – and such a hawk moth was identified 150 years later?

It is true that many hawk moths do have a long proboscis – but the smerinthines have no functional proboscis, and the adult moth does not feed.

Female Cerisy’s Eyed Hawk Moth Smerinthus cerisyi (Lep.: Sphingidae)  Jeremy Tatum

Cabbage White Pieris rapae (Lep.: Pieridae)  Jeremy Tatum

   Nathan Fisk writes:  What a find!   Top of Seymour Hill in Thetis Lake Park. Afternoon of the May 2.   Nectaring on the Spring Gold patches between Scotch Broom.:

 Grey Hairstreak Strymon melinus (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Nathan Fisk