Our morning glory "Green curtain" seems to be a wonderful place for living things to congregate. The latest visitor is a giant caterpillar. I was thinking of leaving it there so the children can watch it turn into a cocoon and then a big beautiful butterfly..... But then I looked up wikipedia and identified th
e caterpillar as the larvae of the moth "Acherontia lachesis" which isa large (up to 13 cm wingspan) Sphingid moth found in India and much of the Oriental region, one of the three species of Death's-head Hawkmoth, also known as the Bee Robber. It is nocturnal, and very fond of honey; they can mimic the scent of honey bees so that they can enter a hive unharmed to get honey. Their tongue, which is stout and very strong, enables them to pierce the wax cells and suck the honey out. This species occurs throughout almost the entire Oriental region, from India, Pakistan and Nepal to the Philippines, and from southern Japan and the southern Russian Far East to Indonesia, where it attacks colonies of several different honey bee species.
Considering it is close to our beehive I think I might give it a new home in the river tomorrow!
Eeep! That is ENOOOOOORMOUS! But very beautiful in a creepy way. If it is going to attack your bees though, yes, it needs to go....
ReplyDeleteyou can probably sell it to a bug-geek in Tokyo for 5,000 yen.
ReplyDeleteerkkkkk on the caterpillar but wow on your green curtain. Mine is well and truly yellowed by now. :(
ReplyDeleteyeah, you should put that thing up on yahoo auctions! ;)
ReplyDeleteHe's enormous, wow, he really is! But like you said and also Vicky said and I agree. If he could posisbly bother or harm the bees or just plain steal their honey, then yes you're right he has to be relocated for sure.
ReplyDeleteI liked Kevin and Illahee's idea of selling it though. Sometimes when we go to Joyful Honda (a DIY) in a more populated city/area it's always surprising to me that they sell kabutomushi for the prices they do. Meanwhile we live here in the countryside and our kids can find them all over for free. I bet you could fetch a pretty penny for that big catepillar guy. ; ) But then just a simple relocation could just be easier. I don't know.... : ) Anyway..good night.
Very interesting....I am making note of that-since I plan on bee-keeping ion Japan. Yep, sounds like he needs a new location definitely away from your bees!
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