Here’s an interesting beast I found today while weeding under the grape vines. It’s called an Abbott’s Sphinx caterpillar. It gave me a start when I came across it, as it thrashes around and makes a noise to simulate a snake and scare predators (like me, I guess). This article mentions both hissing and squeaking, but I think it was more of a buzz. Either way, it is very disconcerting, especially with the big “eye”.
Of course, I had to bring it in to show the kids. They weren’t too impressed just looking at it until one got too close and it flopped around and made the noise. Then they jumped back good (just like I did when I found it).
There is no question as to their authenticity. There are numerous scientific papers written on the subject and DNA analysis has dispelled all doubt as to their existence.
Fruitnut, I’m sure you’ve seen a house dog getting busy with an old shoe, a stuffed animal or whatever. Imagine a dog in heat and along comes another dog. You find it hard to believe they would mate? They are both the same species and both operate in similar areas so the liklihood of these encounters is so likely as to be commonplace. I would guess it’s probably somewhat rare that they would mate, but the mere continuous meeting of one another all but guarantees it. I’ve seen domesticated dogs attempting to mate with house cats for pete’s sake.
I think mine is a bit on the large side at just over 3". It is about the same width as the tip of my pinkie.
Nope- he spent the night on my kitchen counter (in a container). The kids didn’t want me to kill it, so it will be fed to the birds in a park near work (not near home in case it gets away).
I was thinking I too would have put him in a glass jar with a grape leaf to eat. I’d have doused the leaf with Phosmet first though, just so I could witness the results. I read a little on these guys and came across other postings about them and they found them on grapes also.
I’d guess Phosmet would kill them, but I’d like to see it in action.
You should have kept it in a jar just to see it turn into a moth. Last summer I found a luna moth catapiller in the yard. I showed it to my grandson and told him it would turn into a beautiful moth. It was big, about like big tomatoe horn worm. I put it in a jar with a small stick to climb on and covered it with the mesh bag that some fruit came in. My wife said " that thing will get out through that mesh" . I assured that a caterpillar that size could not possibly fit through mesh that small. Needless to say the next morning the jar was empty. I looked every where and could not find it. About three weeks later we came home from work and it was flying around the house. Lol
That was the first thing I googled when he posted it was what the moth looked like to that worm. It looks like a small hawk moth which is what the tomato worm turns into. I had a Luna Moth on my screen door last year. I’ve seen them at the gas pump too.
We has a wicked thunderstorm blow through, with a severe thunderstorm warning. We had multiple strikes and more than one fire started in San Diego county. This happened about 400’ from my house. Thankfully, the Vista FD got here in record time to put it out. I am surrounded by hundreds of acres of absolutely bone-dry scrub and brush. Thankfully as well, we had a decent, but short downpour, which helped to keep the fire from spreading just long enough for the FD to get here and put it out. Way, way too much excitement for the day.
HQ you betcha!
