CLOSED: big cat

who is this guy? found him crawling along the path surrounding the pond behind our pasture.

It is one of 2 things.

A tomato hornworm at the end stages of being parasitized by the wasp that uses them to hatch their babies, they start to turn reddish or brownish

or

a type of hornworm I cannot id! LOL

There are a few types of Sphinx cats that show the red...

I had trouble iding this guy too. The chevrons look like a tomato hornworm but the colors don't. Since I don't see the horn, he could be getting ready to pupate.

I took some more pictures of him hoping that will help. Here he is upside down. Head is at bottom of pic. no horn.

Maybe a Banded sphinx, Eumorpha fasciatus:

http://www.silkmoths.bizland.com/efascfas.htm

This link says they are highly variable and some of them just have a stubby horn.

I have that one saved as a possibility. thanks!
I was looking at this one too.
(Fig Sphinx) - Pachylia ficus http://bugguide.net/node/view/53361
I guess they change colors and can loose their horn right before they cocoon so it could be a number of things but not look like the pictures posted on them. We have him in a butterfly cage. I'm going to follow the directions I found on another site and see if I can keep him alive until he turns into whatever he's gonna be and then id him from there.

I'm so glad you are going to raise it, he will be a great addition to the Bug Files.

Good Luck!

hoping I don't kill it! going to fill the bottom tomorrow with dirt in case it is ready to bury itself...if not, will just try and experiment with different types of leaves for it to eat.

I recently had a Luna Moth cat pupate, I put new potting soil in there with some old Sweet Gum leaves (that's what he ate) and he pupated. He didn't go into the soil, just silked some leaves around him. Here he is, you can't really see him:

The tough part will be to find food that he will eat, especially not knowing what he is....but a mix will be good.

If he doesn't like any of the leaves he may morph early, butterflies will do that too.

way cool...a luna moth on our deck is what got me even interested to begin with.
From what I've read tonight about him wandering on the path, possible change of colors and missing horn, he should be close. Fingers crossed :-)

I'm hoping this is morphing and not dying. He started shrinking this morning and is now about the size I guess I would expect him to shrink down to? What do you think? I didn't put any soil into the butterfly cage as he was already shrinking this morning so figured I'd just watch. Also figured out macro mode on my new camera so these pictures are better than yesterday.

he's still moving, just very very slowly and not moving around but more just an occasional wiggle.

last pic

Nice pic's. Is that your supermacro setting?

heh heh

It does look like he's pupating....he isn't done is he?

Great pics!

yup, supermacro setting :-) Love this camera :-)

Fly_girl, he's still wiggling a little so don't think he's done. We covered him with a bunch of leaves and debated whether to leave him in the carport (supposed to go down to 55 tonight) or bring him inside. Ended up putting the butterfly cage inside an open box to keep him out of any direct cold air and left him in the carport. Figured that would be closer to natural environment. Will see what he looks like tomorrow! Can't wait to see what he is.

Can't wait to see the final product.

What a trip~

well he was buried under leaves for a few days and other than checking that he was still there, I've left him alone. Tonight, he climbed to the top of the butterfly cage...

here's a face shot...I think! :-)

Haha, he has become quite scary looking!

I don't think the Sci-Fi channel has a thing over the DG bug files! And, I can't believe I'm here actually fascinated by what this creature is going to become! I'm even getting used to the huge Banana Spider in the humongous web over my patio. And when I researched in the bug files, imagine my surprise at seeing a closeup of the Banana Spider's head which looks curiously like a skull, and even more curiously just like the face of the alien creature at the end of Arnold Schwartzeneger's movie, "Predator." I'm beginning to see where the Sci-Fi channel gets its inspiration...from the DG bugfiles!

What is the garden coming to?

GG, I saw your banana spider picture...if I found that thing on my deck above my head the way you did, you would have heard my screams around the world. I couldn't even open your pictures for a closer view...the preview pic was more than enough for me. I'm so far from being a bug person that I haven't even touched this cat! LOL. I think that's why I frequent this forum tho. The more creepy crawlies I can identify and know the names of and know more about them, maybe the safer I feel. Also, when I see a known bad guy, I can stomp on him without the slightest hesitation or feeling of guilt :-)

Cat is still sitting in same spot this morning. Doesn't appear to have moved or changed any overnight. I'm watching him carefully as I'm wondering if he crawled up to the top to "hatch".

It's great you are taking care of him and informative.....I always thought the sphinx cats pupated on the ground. I sure hope he makes it!

Haha Gym......where's your banana spider pic?

me too! it's gonna make me crazy if he doesn't and I never know what he is! gonna keep my eyes to the ground this weekend when we walk to the pond to see if I find any more...kind of hard cause I'm used to looking up to make sure I don't walk into any spider webs...learned that from experience face first...I'm sure ya'll heard that scream.

DevilDogs, Haven't seen you post anything lately on him and was wondering hw he was doing? I have two that are in a container, I thought I'd bring them in seeing as I have so many paritizing warps around, Thought I'd try and give these guys a chance at making it, Heres a few photos of how it's going, One went into the dirt and came back up and started turning color, The other went down in the dirt and is still there and I believe he is now changing color from what I can see.. Heres a photo of one of them at larva stage, They are both pretty much the same..

Changing...

#2 ..

#3

Great pics Iris!

well, I'm pretty sure my unknown cat is long dead. He hasn't moved in over a week and is hard as a rock. :-(
Here he is from the bottom.

on the 23rd, we found a tussock cat

he agreed to be a model for a few shots...

very photogenic little guy

Aww, So sorry to hear that! Hope mine make it ok. That tussock cat is pretty neat looking and he posed very well!!!

then he bundled himself up for a long nap

I've heard /read that the fuzzy ones can be stingy, Be carefull

The bundled one..Too funny! lol!

and I "think" this is a luna cat? saved two of them from my carport just as they were about to crawl into the borax I keep spread around the door to the house to keep the creepy-crawlies outside where they belong.