Elephant hawk-moth
- Description
-
Adult elephant hawk-moths are quite a common sight May-July across the UK. Frank Lees bred this moth from a larva between 1927 and 1928. It emerged as an adult July 1928.
The caterpillar (larva) looks a little like an elephant’s trunk. It would make a tasty snack for a foraging bird but it has alarming eye spots and by rearing up and retracting its head it tricks the bird into thinking it is a snake. - Accession Loan No.
- 9/1997/35
- Collection Class
- Arthropods
- Common Name
- elephant hawk-moth
- Simple Name
- insect: moth
- Full Name
- SPHINGIDAE: Deilephila elpenor (Linnaeus, 1758): elephant hawk-moth
- Period Classification
- Inter War (1918-1939); Modern (1900-)
- Family Group
- Collector / Excavator
- Devonshire Association (from the collection of): Lees, Mr Frank H
- Collection Town
- Castle Bromwich
- Collection County
- West Midlands
- Collection Country
- United Kingdom: England
- Collection Area Region
- Northern Europe
- Collection Continent
- Europe
- Phylum
- ARTHROPODA
- Family
- SPHINGIDAE
- Genus
- Deilephila
- Species
- elpenor
