01/02/2014
I found a beautiful caterpillar in my home garden on a Crape Jasmine (Tabernaemontana divericata) plant.
Suddenly I saw most of the leaves of that plant have eaten by a small greenish caterpillar.
I have seen 2 of them earlier also on another variety of Wathusudda plant.But they were quiet large
and stumpy.
When I saw that in this time I wanted to identify the species
and also to study about its life cycle so that I collected the caterpillar in
to a glass bottle.
According to its morphology (appearance) I’m sure it is an Oleander
Hawk moth (Daphnis nerii) caterpillar.
Oleander Hawk moth is also called Army Green Moth due to its camouflaged colouration on their wings. Oleander
is referred to Nerium Oleander,
a poisonous
plant and as the caterpillar prefers to eat leaves of that plant it gives its
vernacular name Oleander Hawk moth. Other than that they use grape, crape
jasmine, vinca like plants as host plants.
You may know that there are 3 major parts in a body
of an insect. Caterpillar is a larva of a moth (an insect) with a head, thorax
and abdomen.
This caterpillar has 3 thoracic segments and 8
abdominal segments and is apple green in colour.
On its third thoracic segment there is a prominent
pair of ocelli consisting of a drak bluish outer ring with whitish blue center.
There are 2
dorso-lateral yellowish bands run along the body starting from 2nd
abdominal segment to the horn at the posterior end. On either side of this band
there are small aqua-marine dots. The horn is yellowish with black tip.
On the first thoracic segment and also on all the
abdominal segments there are pairs of dorso-lateral black spiracles. (In
arthropods, these are small external openings of the respiratory tube, which
can be opened and closed in order to reduce water loss.)
This caterpillar has 3 pairs of brownish, true legs
on the lower surface of the thorax with hooks to hold its food.
Also there are five pairs of stumpy legs on the abdominal
segments which are called prolegs that let the caterpillar to climb well as
they have crochets; small grasping hooks. These legs disappear in adults.
They voraciously feed on leaves and excrete dark
greenish pellets.
03/02/2014
It’s amazing. Now the caterpillar has changed its color
to brown.
Dorsally it is light brownish and the flanks are
olive green in color. The dorso-lateral lines became whitish and the spiracles
are more clearly identified. Around each spiracle there is a yellowish edge.
Other thing is its horn, it curved downward and color has changed to yellowish
orange.
There is a dark brownish outer ring in the ocelli
with brownish white center. And also I could observe a blackish mid dorsal line
on the thorax.
The
caterpillar has eaten only a half of one leaf since last morning and there were
few pellets on the bottle.
I know this is the pre papal stage and their pupa
is found on the ground under leaf litter. Therefore I return it to its natural habitat,
the Crape Jasmine plant. After about an hour I couldn't see the caterpillar. I
searched it around the tree. But I failed to found it.
But still I wish to see an adult Oleander Hawk
Moth.
