catgrin

That is so cool!
Have you got any idea what pollinates it?

I really believe the best thing to do is wait for the caterpillar to become a moth. As I already wrote, identification after color change can be difficult. We could waste our time going round and round on this - but there are far better things to do, and either way smikka91's going to have a lovely visitor!

Hello again :)
While it looks a lot like M. sexta (which feeds exclusively on nightshade family plants), M. Rustica has a different appetite. Just like A. cingulata, they feed on species from flowers families that include Convolvulaceae - the Morning Glories. In fact, they feed on a wide variety of plants.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manduca_rus...

Small, round, and wandering can make for such a complicated photo shoot! Wonderfully done!

Hi! Your picture is of a Longjawed Orbweaver (spider!) - nothing dangerous, so no fear there. :)

Those "eyes" aren't eyes. Those are things called "pedipalps" that male spiders use when being very, very friendly with female spiders. All spiders - both male and female have pedipalps, but on females they just look like an extra short pair of legs. Only males have ones that bulge at the end. So you can often use them to figure out if a spider is male or female.

Congratulations! It's a boy!

I do understand why you would provide the alternate ID, and believe either may prove to be right. Mid-change it's really hard to tell!

I did not opt to provide A. cingulata before because that species looks to bear a longer horn, striping on color change doesn't seem to meet in the middle of the back as often as it does on M. rustica (color change has already begun there), and it lacks the strong white basic white striping shown by M. rustica.

I do agree that A. cingulata has large spiracular markings, but that is a feature of color change - along with all the stripe colors. My provided link comparing before and after coloration shows this. At this time, I really can't change my original ID, but I also value yours. I wrote this to explain why I made and retain my choice.

She's beautiful, and not disturbed by you at all!

Hi :) Longjawed orb weavers are not dangerous to humans. I unfortunately can't determine the exact species of this spider for you. No one could without a very close examination (dissection) - this is common in identification of some types of spiders.

Also, this may help for future identification: It's much better to put a numbered size (in mm or inches) than how you perceive an insect when describing it.

Your orbweaver looks big, but spiders are only measured in body length (including head). You don't measure the legs because they change dimension all the time. The orbweaver pictured above probably correctly measured between 0.3 and 0.5 inches. (The legs stretched out may have been two inches across!)

You caught that caterpillar in the middle of dressing! It normally would be green all over - with no brown. The color sometimes changes when they get ready to pupate. Since yours is in mid-change, I'm offering a link to this blog which shows before and after color change pics.

http://arizonabeetlesbugsbirdsandmore.bl...

Couldn't find this one. The best suggestion I have is that it's possibly one of the Hydrillodes. Wing shape and antennae are correct, and the moth is generally drab as described for the genus. You'll probably have far better luck!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrillodes...