Observation date: August 17, 2012
Submitted by: meemsy
Specimen type: Photograph
Observation notes: This caterpillar was about 4" long, and the largest caterpillar I've ever seen. Location: San Miguel de Allende Mexico (3 hours northwest of Mexico City). I'd love help identifying it so please share the photo.
Status: Resident
Verified by: stomlins701
Verified date: September 06, 2013
Coordinator notes: Coordinator 1: This is a sphingid larva, belonging to the genus Eumorpha. There are about a dozen species in this genus found in Mexico. This individual is rather similar to Eumorpha typhon, though I cannot be certain as I have not seen images of all Eumorpha species found in Mexico.
-Ryan St. Laurent
Coordinator 2: This looks just like many of the photos of Eumorpha typhon I found on the web, so I am certain the id is correct. Perhaps the black bands do not always appear unless the caterpillar is fully stretched like in the sighting photo, hence are not evident on photos on MPG and bugguide. However, the following web sites show photos of the caterpillar with the black bands, some are sharper and darker than others, so there evidently is some variability in this characteristic. The green form does not seem to show the black bands in any photo I could find. SAT
http://caterpillarblog.com/2011/09/20/eumorpha-typhon/
http://www.silkmoths.bizland.com/etyphon.htm
http://www.naturewideimages.com/11.html
