Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Clickable Guide
Moths Butterflies Flies Caterpillars Flies Dragonflies Flies Mantids Cockroaches Bees and Wasps Walkingsticks Earwigs Ants Termites Hoppers and Kin Hoppers and Kin Beetles True Bugs Fleas Grasshoppers and Kin Ticks Spiders Scorpions Centipedes Millipedes

Calendar

TaxonomyBrowseInfoImagesLinksBooksData
Photo#1662294
Mating caterpillars ;-) - Hyles lineata

Mating caterpillars ;-) - Hyles lineata
Henderson Canyon, Anza-Borrego, San Diego County, California, USA
March 23, 2019
Well...at least that's what it looked like from a distance :-)

One of the rarest and least often seen caterpillars in the Anza-Borrego area...if you exclude every other thing that could possibly be conceived of as a caterpillar!

Seen here feeding on one of their favorite larval food plants, Chlismia claviformis (probably ssp. peirsonii). After seeing these caterpillars overrun the desert in an outbreak year...one finds it's amazing that any Chlismia progeny are left afterwards.