We found this fellow in our garden in mid-August. It was the largest caterpillar we had ever seen. Curious, we took some pictures, and looked it up in our insect field guide and online, only to discover we had a tobacco hornworm on our hands - or more literally, on our leaves.
Since we didn't want to leave it to feast on our garden, we made him a home in a terrarium (10 gallon fish tank with wire mesh lid and no water).
It seemed to enjoy the tomato and eggplant leaves we fed it, and only a few days later had formed a chrysallis under the soil. (I have heard that moths form cocoons, not chrysalli, but you take a look - does it look like it is wrapped in a silky pod to you?)
Our pet caterpillar became a fixture in the corner of our dining room for about the next month. Then one day ...
... we found it hanging from the corner of the terrarium, clinging to the mesh lid. We put the terrarium outside, took some pictures, and took off the lid. We expected our moth to go flying away immediately, but it was content to hang out for a while. We theorized that it was waiting for some sun to warm its wings, the way butterflies will, but our moth stayed where it was, all day. Mysteriously, the next morning it was gone. I guess moths (at least those that have metamorphosed from a tobacco horn-worm) like to fly at night.
(Moth in last picture is not standing on its head, but I don't know how to make blogger rotate the picture.)
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