elephant hawk moth

11 comments

Back in April I cleaned the greenhouse thoroughly and on sweeping up under the staging I found this elephant hawk moth chrysalis. It was covered in, what I thought was spider webs, but after I’d cleared most of it off I read up on it and realised it was from the moth itself and helped it regulate temperature.

We, youngest and I put it in a tray of damp compost and popped it in the shed. We checked it regularly to make sure the compost remained just damp.

This carried on into early July. The books say they hatch in June but still no sign. It had also stopped moving when it was picked up. I started to fear the worst as it suddenly over 2 days went very dark.

One evening I opened the door to see:….

The split chrysalis was slimy to the touch. After several minutes of searching I finallly spotted it on the window frame. A pretty elephant hawk moth in all its glory.

I turned the light on from the garage and just waited. It flew out and up into the beech tree.

A long but worthwhile wait.

Isn’t nature wonderful?

• 30 Aug, 2016
• 17 likes

More blog posts by seaburngirl