Clear-Winged Hummingbird Sphinx Moth

Hello! In this post, I want to tell you about the Clear-Winged Hummingbird Sphinx Moth caterpillar that I have been raising since August. Mom found it on a Honeysuckle plant one day when we were out exploring, searching for Black Swallowtail caterpillars to raise. We did not find what we were looking for but we found this cute caterpillar :). It is certainly a very pretty caterpillar.
Notice the golden crown on it's head and the yellow base on the horn. It also has black dots along the sides of his body that are barely visible when it is only 1/4 of an inch long. That is how long ( or short) this caterpillar was when we found it. As it grows the spots are more visible.
These caterpillars feed on honeysuckle, hawthorns, viburnum, and Black Cherry plants. Compared to the Monarch caterpillars I raised, my clear winged sphinx moth caterpillar grew rather slowly and did not eat as much. The caterpillar never consumed a whole Honeysuckle leaf in a day, even when the caterpillar was full grown.

The last picture is of the caterpillar in the pupa stage. When the caterpillar is fully grown it will climb down the host plant and bury itself in the dirt to go into the pupa stage. But our caterpillar could not bury in the dirt, so it pulled some leaves over itself and then went into the pupa stage. I have read that the caterpillars will do this if they can't get into the dirt for some reason.
We bought a bird-cage at a thrift store that we put the jar into, so that we can watch the moth after it hatches for a little bit before letting it loose. Our caterpillar should stay in the pupa stage all Winter and hatch next Spring, Lord willing.

After hatching the moth continues to grow. It grows until it is about two inches long. The moths live in fields, on forest edges, and in gardens.

Did you know?...
The Clear-Winged Hummingbird Sphinx Moth got it's name because people often think it is a hummingbird? The resemblance is amazing. A few years ago we saw something and thought it might be a hummingbird, but we weren't sure. Now we think it must have been one of these amazing creatures! Click here to see a picture of the moth and get some more information!

Seven Gems

Hello! I want to share some information about the seven Monarch butterflies I raised this year.
I learned some new things this year, including the fact that the Monarch caterpillar has twelve eyes, six on each side of it's head! Even though it has all those eyes it has very poor vision, so it uses it's antennas to know where it is at.

Also, I want to let you all know "Monarch Monica" from last year, is a male. The last picture on this post is a picture of a female. The female has wider black veins on her wings, and no dots on the hind wings. She is also smaller. The male has dots on his hind wings. In our studies, last year and this year , we have had only one female butterfly. We also noticed that all of the our male chrysalis' were the same size, but the female chrysalis was considerably smaller.

The caterpillars seemed to grow at the same rate as last year and about the same length except for the female. She was only about 1-1/2 inches long when she went into a chrysalis. Another thing I learned is how a caterpillar breathes. It breathes through little holes along its body called spiracles which are connected to tubes called tracheae, which carry oxygen throughout it's body.

I also noticed as I was watching a caterpillar spinning into it's chrysalis, that I could still see the stripes for almost an hour! After the stripes disappeared, I noticed yellow dots on the solid green chrysalis. A few hours later those dots had turned a lovely gold! Watch a gem!!!

The first picture is of a baby caterpillar when it first hatched. It's... kinda cute, don't you think? :-) The baby caterpillar will eat it's eggshell immediately after it hatches and then it will begin munching on the underside of the milkweed leaf, making a hole large enough for it to crawl through.