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And STILL, after so many years and so many caterpillars, these creatures can make my jaw drop. I was today years old when I saw a caterpillar wag its horn for the first time!

Gaudy sphinx, Eumorpha labruscae, middle instar caterpillars can... apparently... make their horns "wag" in response to a threat. In their final instar these caterpillars lose their horns, and have a shiny false eye spot on their rear end instead. The false eye can twitch or "wink" making it look incredibly realistic... but the horn wag of the earlier instars was news to me!

Quality larva!

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Eumorpha labruscae grows to be one of the largest caterpillars in the united states, with some from the south Texas population approaching hotdog size. For their first four instars, or growth stages, they have a thin horn on their rear end, which as we have now seen, can wag (!!!) when the caterpillar is feeling threatened. The final instar loses the horn, but in its place remains a button-like false eye that can actually twitch and appear to "wink". The caterpillar digs into soil to pupate, and the resulting adult moth, which I have yet to photograph, is a most spectacular green with brilliant red and blue false eyespots on its hind-wings.

I have now found gaudy sphinx caterpillars three times. The first was in south Texas. I had come across a scattered pile of enormous caterpillar poop or frass on a trail of the National Butterfly Center, and revisited the spot after dark to find one of the biggest caterpillars I had ever seen just casually munching away... like it didn't even know it was the most spectacular creature in existence! I sat down on the trail and watched it feed as I tried to catch my breath from over excitement. I may have cried just a little...

The second was a final instar in southern Florida. I had been searching all across the wildest places and came up empty day after day. It was near the end of the trip when I went for a casual stroll around the small garden of my rental cabin, in a relatively suburban environment, and there in front of me, another beast of a gaudy sphinx! I spent many more hours after that searching every inch of the property, but there was only one to be found.

My third find was of a penultimate or fourth instar caterpillar that still had its curly-cue horn and green and purple spots. I had been hoping to see these charismatic earlier instars so this was another find that had me dancing in the streets. Quite literally. This little critter was on a Cissus vine crawling over a chain-link fence along the side of a busy road. I stopped to search the vine, uncovered the mini-beast, and... I have no idea what the passerbys thought was going on with all the hooting and flailing that followed.

There are so many intriguing, strange, poorly known, and mysterious caterpillars left to find and learn about. They have kept my attention all these years and proved to be unmatched in their ability to grab the attention of others. Maaaaybe I get just a little too excited over these finds... but I know the power these small characters have to stimulate curiosity, wonder, shock, humor, and reflection in those who encounter them. I know that each find certainly changes the way I see a place, a vine, a roadside. These experiences and sharing them with as many people as we can, is what The Caterpillar Lab was founded on.