Elephant Hawk Cats

The larvae of this species are all just about fully developed and almost reaady to pupate now. If you want to find some to rear through and over winter for next year they are at their easiest to find now and most decent sized patches of Rosebay Willowherb will have at least one larvae. The easiest way to find them is to pick a sunny late afternoon or very early evening whilst the sun is still hot and on finding your rosebay bend down/kneel and look upwards from below the plants and you will see any larvea present as a large silhouette near the top of the plant where they are getting some sun. I dont know wny they do this but it maybe they need to speed up and food digestion before they pupate. They wont be on the top of the leaves but hung under a leaf or hanging from a stem. Its easy enough to bag a few to rear through to pupation and overwinter in a shed out doors in a pot or tub filled with peat.

This is one I found out in the open so I suspect it could well have parasite"s" in it causing it to sit out in the open. One year I reared through some cats of this species and on opening the container they were overwintering in early spring to check on them an enormous ichneumon wasp flew out and scared the crap out of me :)