I'm back in the vineyard! My husband said that this July was the hottest on record. We haven't had much rain and although the weeds are thriving, the vines are not. Walking the vineyard, we came upon this not so little critter and as beautiful as it was, we knew it was doing significant damage to our leaves! We picked it off, went home and discovered that it is called
Eumorpha pandorus, a member of the Sphingidae, the Sphinx family of moths.
This caterpillar was in our vineyard because the host plants are
Vitis as well as the related
Parthenosissus or Virginia creeper. This caterpillar turns into the Pandorus sphinx moth.
Reference:
Wikipedia entry on
Eumorpha pandorus.
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