As I was tending my raised vegetable bed (the spinach is about ready to harvest), I found this strange looking thing. At first I thought it was some type of unusual seed pod, but it moved when I touched it. The pointed end on the left was segmented and the creature would move back and forth. The end with the "tail" was a hard case, shell or cocoon. I don't even know where to start identifying it. Any ideas?
UPDATE: Thanks for your help. My brother-in-law narrowed it down to cecropia moth.
5 comments:
I don't know, but if you find out will you post it. We had a couple of those in our garden too. Creepy.
The hook is for the proboscis of a moth. I've found many of them, too. It could be a spotted hawk moth, not sure of the size there, but even so, most of the moth pupas like this look very much alike. They pupate underground, where they're more protected. Cool, huh? ;-)
Here's a site explaining ... http://manduca.entomology.wisc.edu/about/pupa.html
Some kind of insect pupa. I find them in my gardens, too. I took an entomology class or two in college so I should know more, but I chose to forget some of the creepy crawling stuff!
OMG too creepy! I found one of those too (in MY spinich in MY raised bed!) I put it in a jar to wait and see what it would be come....
I followed a link here from my website ( www.wormspit.com ) - that's definitely not a Cecropia. Cecropias pupate in large bag-like cocoons attached to tree branches. Most likely it is a sphinx or hawk moth of some sort; exact identification is tough without seeing the moth. Most of the Sphingids burrow to pupate.
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