Caterpillar

Found this caterpillar in the garden today. It was about 10cm long and 1cm in diameter. After a short search I discovered that it's a Death's Head Hawkmoth caterpillar, Acherontia atropos. The adult moth is pictured on the movie poster of the Academy Award winning Silence of the Lambs and played a role in the narrative of that film. Regarding the derivation of name , according to the Biodiversity website: “The Death’s head hawk moth is so called because of the skull-like pattern on the thorax"

[Anne]

That’s beautiful and amazing Sally!

[vonski]

Oh wow

[JackieR]

Blimey that's almost a snake!!

[KoalaGardens🐨]

oh they are awesome with those skulls on the back of their heads!

[Mariana Visser]

fabulous caterpillar

[Shutterbug]

Amazing. Has to be one of the prettiest caterpillars I have seen. Very nice capture. Thanks for the background info.

[Babs]

Wow it is huge. Love the colours.

[Kerri Michaels]

really? interesting

[sarah]

That’s incredible

[Marnie]

Good grief, sounds like a huge caterpillar. Great macro.

[Taffy]

Gigantic thing! Can't be good for the plants, I suspect.

[Diana]

Such beautiful colours.

[Issi Bannerman]

Euh! Lovely capture though.

[Denise Wood]

Wow! The patterns are amazing :)

[gloria jones]

Great closeup, details

[Monique]

What a beautiful creature, never seen one like it

[Nina Ganci]

amazing colours. never knew we had such colourful caterpillars

[Myrna O'Hara]

This is amazing.

[Jacqueline]

Gigantic caterpillar, beautiful patterns!

[Ann H. LeFevre]

Wow- incredible creature! It's so colorful and reminds me of the Luna moth caterpillar (they don't look alike, but both are rather elaborate as caterpillars go!). Good shot!

[Margo]

Amazing find

[bkb in the city]

Great find