Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Oruga

Xylophanes falco

Habitat:

Dry matorral, near an area with many Quercus.

1 Species ID Suggestions

NicholeSauve
NicholeSauve 12 years ago
Tobacco Horn Worm (Sphinx or Hawk Moth)
Manduca sexta UNL Entomology: Insect Biology: Tobacco Hornworm


Sign in to suggest organism ID

9 Comments

me.riamfb
me.riamfb 12 years ago

NicholeSauve and craigwilliams: Thank you for the information!!... I´m searching for hawkmoths and different genus of the Sphingidae family, but there are many that look similar because of fake eyes, horns, etc.. like some species of eumorpha and manduca, but I think it´s very similar to Xylophanes falco,( http://www.silkmoths.bizland.com/xfalco ) because of the distribution and because there were plants of the Rubiaceae family in the area.. I think there was also Bauvardia glaberrima according to a floristic list we made for University. But I would like to know other ideas! :)

LarryGraziano
LarryGraziano 12 years ago

Lovely spotting and great catepillar!

NicholeSauve
NicholeSauve 12 years ago

I suppose you could go with a more wide classification of the sphinx, or as craigwilliams said, hawk moth species. If I ever find a more particular name for that specific caterpillar I'll let you know. = )

http://entomology.unl.edu/k12/caterpilla...

NicholeSauve
NicholeSauve 12 years ago

I believe this is some form of Sphinx caterpillar from what I keep coming across.

Here is the Tersa Sphinx:
http://bugsinthenews.info/wp-content/upl...

Try searching these also: Gaudy Sphinx, white-lined sphinx, Falcon sphinx, Hermit sphinx, Pluto sphinx. I've come across many different dark, large headed, fake-eyed sphinx species that look very similar to what you have, many with rear horns as well.

Here is yours I'm mostly positive, but I can't find the name yet. I'll keep you updated.
http://gallery.pictopia.com/natgeo/galle...

NicholeSauve
NicholeSauve 12 years ago

Wow! What an awesome caterpillar!

craigwilliams
craigwilliams 12 years ago

Hello & welcome to Noah! This is very cool indeed!
Its some kind of Hawkmoth caterpillar but beyond that for your area I'm stuck: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphingidae
I hope someone can ID the species.

KarenL
KarenL 12 years ago

Great spot!
Welcome to Project Noah!

alicelongmartin
alicelongmartin 12 years ago

Cool!

Stian Waaler
Stian Waaler 12 years ago

Amazing catepillar!

me.riamfb
Spotted by
me.riamfb

Mexico

Spotted on Oct 6, 2011
Submitted on Dec 16, 2011

Related Spottings

Xylophanes chiron Tersa Sphinx Moth Tersa Sphinx (caterpillar) Tersa Sphinx

Nearby Spottings

Flor de mayo Bluemink Fragata portuguesa Ardilla 🐿
Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team