I have done very little moth recording this year and was completely unaware of the migrant bonanza of mid October until well after the event had occurred, much to my disappointment. Therefore on the 23rd I was very pleased and surprised to find two Convolvulus Hawk-moth larvae on a patch of native climbing Convolvulus plant which I hadn’t got around to spraying off in my garden. Gardeners among you will know that it smothers plants and is difficult to eradicate but from now on I will transfer some pieces of the root to some of my wild areas in hope of hosting further larvae in the future.
These two were found while cutting grass and were both feeding on the bindweed covering the ground. There may have been more hidden by the nettles. There were signs that they had previously fed higher up the plants but perhaps they spend their last few days feeding close to the ground due to size and weight. I have not seen images of them on climbing bind-weeds before as they are often found wandering to perhaps pupate or in search of more food. The green form is well camouflaged being the same shade of green as the foliage and the round dark dots represent the shot holes frequently found on the leaves as illustrated in the photo
A nice find Keith. Never found wild larvae myself, have searched by without success. Have been other records of larvae found this year mostly when wandering off the plants to pupate.
Good photo capturing how the caterpillar colouration fits in well with the holey leaves.