One of the wonders of Nature.....
Enjoy these images showing the life-cycle of the Privet Hawk-moth and then click here to the Section on Butterfly and Moth Life Cycles.
A female Privet Hawk-moth with her abdomen heavy with eggs. Females caught in moth-traps will often lay their eggs in the trap, and these can be hatched and the larvae reared.
An amazing close-up of the egg of a Privet Hawk-moth just before hatching - the tiny larva is about to use its jaws (mandibles) to chew its way out of the egg. Notice that the tiny larva is bristly before hatching. Photo: John Bebbington FRPS.
Privet Hawk-moth larvae are usually a stunning green colour with bright lilac and white stripes to break up the caterpillar shape and provide camouflage. The caterpillars feed on Privet, Ash, Lilac or Guelder Rose leaves (and occasionally garden shrubs like Viburnum tinus, Spiraea or Forsythia).
The larva buries into the leaf litter or soil to pupate and spends the winter (sometimes a year and two winters) as a pupa, before hatching into the adult moth in June or July.
Bisexual butterflies and moths...
just occasionally a butterfly or moth turns up with features of both male and female showing. Here is a link to a stunning butterfly hatched in the Natural History Museum in London.
This photo was taken in Hungary of an Eastern Clouded Yellow (Colias erate) which shows half male, half female features.Photo: Adam Kiss