Skip to content

Meet Elephant Hawkmoth caterpillar

It’s a typical hot August day and the living is easy, in a deck chair, under a sun hat, sort-of reading a book, with my gaze drifting around the garden. Imagine my reaction when your eyes are caught by a movement near your feet.
Caterpillar
The Elephant Hawkmoth, or Deilephila elpenor, is a native of the British Isles and central Europe.

It’s a typical hot August day and the living is easy, in a deck chair, under a sun hat, sort-of reading a book, with my gaze drifting around the garden.

Imagine my reaction when your eyes are caught by a movement near your feet. Your eyes focus on a slithering ... mini-snake? Python-like colours? You think, “Should I be afraid of it?”

If you are like me, curiosity wins out. I captured it in a clear canning jar with the flat lid and cap. Then I drove to West Coast Seeds on Elliot St. in Ladner because of course they know everything about South Delta gardens. One web search later it had a name - Elephant Hawkmoth.

We learned that although they are large, up to nine cm or almost four inches, they are harmless and much more afraid of me than I should be of it.

The Elephant Hawkmoth, or Deilephila elpenor, is a native of the British Isles and central Europe. They are very recent newcomers to southern B. C. They are quite harmless and only look and fierce as protection. This cutie-pie was looking for a bed of dried leaves to bury itself into where it would develop a hard shell, a chrysalis, to transformation over winter from caterpillar to moth.

These beauties are pollinators. I took the caterpillar back home and released it into the flower bed that I let die naturally and do not clean up for winter. I'm now watching for the adult moth - striking amethyst chevrons and edgings on an olive green body. My camera is handy.

Editor’s note: This is the latest in a weekly on-line column from the South Delta Garden Club, which appears on the Optimist website every Tuesday.