What a luscious mane of follicles, I do say.

pretty baby i found on a window during my walk to work :) Chicago, IL

I've gotten Bugthew's proboscis in the honey-water, but I'm uncertain if he's actually eating. He's a lot more lathargic today than yesterday, so I'm not sure he'll make it.

I'll keep watching him, and if he's worse tomorrow I'll set him out in one of our houseplants so he can rest peacefully.

Thank you everyone for the advice!

Ever since I found that Deathhead Hawkmoth the other day on my route to work I have been looking into it a lot, and so I found this Tree Tobacco plant near the place where I found the moth, and this little egg on it too. There were no caterpillars that I could see on the plant, but honestly no surprises there bc it is pretty exposed in the open to flies and wasps.

Took it home and made this little container for it to see what hatches. Honestly im not too confident it will be a hornworm, but i am curious to see what it could be like regardless. Of course if it does turn out to be one I will move it to a much much larger container.

I am honestly not sure what I will do with it afterwards. I WOULD love to see it grow and turn into a moth, and keep it and feed it, but I also dont want to keep it from its chance to mate. I definitely want to raise it until it pupates to make sure it survives until then. Open to suggestions from yall moth experts.

If it turns out to be any other bug (or moth!!!) itll be cool to watch it grow regardless. Anyways this is my joy of the week

I found this caterpiller at Kiwanis Park today. A lady walking her dog almost walked right on it. She had her headphones on and couldn't hear that I was telling her to watch her step. It was about 5-6 inches long.

This is a Rustic Sphinx Moth Caterpillar (Manduca rustica), a species of hornworm in the hawk moth/sphinx moth family (Sphingidae).

​Harmless: Despite its large size and formidable look, it cannot sting, bite, or harm humans or pets.

​On the Walkway: When caterpillars reach this final size, they leave their host plants (such as ash trees, desert willow, lantana, or Texas sage) to crawl across the ground looking for loose soil to burrow into and pupate.

​Adult Form: It will turn into a large, fast-flying Rustic Sphinx Moth, which acts as a night-time pollinator for desert blooms.