Who ate my fuchsia?

Admittedly it wasn’t the best fuchsia I’ve grown, but it was looking a bit peaky, so I had a closer look. Can you spot the culprit?

A couple of weeks before this photo was taken, I had seen a green medium-sized caterpillar with a distinctive black horn on its rear end. I looked it up in my caterpillar book and tentatively identified it as a young elephant hawk moth caterpillar. Sure enough, a week or so later it had changed colour and was unmistakably an elephant hawk moth, with those distinctive eye-spots.

I kept an eye on it and noted how it grew at the same time as my fuchsia got smaller. Then one sunny day it left the plant and presumably went off to pupate somewhere nearby. I look forward to seeing the moth next summer.

Sue Morton, 28 September 2024