Chris Barnhart challenged me to identify this photograph. It didn't look like feathers and I don't know any mammal with green hair so I settled on an insect. Knowing Chris, I was betting on a lepidoptera. I asked him for another hint but instead he sent another picture. That didn't help at all. When I gave up he sent a photo of the whole critter.
This is a Pandora sphinx moth,
Eumorpha pandorus. I had never seen one so brilliantly colored, a testament to his photographic skills.
 |
| Pandora - Chris Barnhart |
A Pandora caterpillar is large with colors from green in the first instars transitioning finally to dark orange-brown. It has an unusual super "turtle power" - the ability to pull its head into its body. The swollen third thoracic segment stretches to allow the head and first two thoracic segments to be pulled in, like pulling up a turtleneck sweater. Chris' photograph will give you the idea, as well as the photographs below by Patrick Coin.
This is all a reminder that it will soon be spring, the time to look for caterpillars and the opening of the Bill Roston Butterfly House at the Botanical Center on May 18th.
