Photo of Animalia: Gardenia Bee Hawk (species: Cephonodes kingii)

Gardenia Bee Hawk Caterpillar (Cephonodes kingii)

© Dark Morelia on Flickr

We rescued this caterpillar from a friend's Gardenia, where he was soon to encounter a sharp pair of scissors. After pinching some Gardenia leaves, he lived in his little enclosure quite happily for a couple of days before changing to a brownish colour and then pupating. So there he sat as a pupa for almost a month, wriggling occasionally when I walked past, before finally emerging as a Gardenia Bee Hawk Cephonodes kingii

Captured on 30 Nov 2010