E is for Elephant Hawk-moth

Few who presumed moths to be uniformly brown and a bit boring could hold that view after gazing on the Deilephila, big bold creatures dressed as if ready to star in an 80’s music video.

Elephant Sally Image: Sally Luker

With a dauntingly long list of possibilities to choose from, it feels a little wasteful to expend as much as one post in 26 on just one species in almost 26,000. But I wouldn’t want this series to become stale. I could have started as I usually do, by reciting a few facts:  that there are in fact two species of elephant hawk-moth found in Britain, the common and strikingly pink Deilephila elpinor and the less common but even pinker small elephant hawk-moth, Deilephila porcellus, that they are both named for the caterpillars which somewhat resemble elephants’ trunks, that larval elpinor tend to feed on rosebay willowherb whilst the adults, on the wing from May to July, prefer honeysuckle. But that isn’t really necessary.

I want you to focus not on facts pertaining to elephant hawk-moths, but on their rather fetching shade of pink. Let that colour saturate your retinas. Isn’t it the most intense, improbable hue? Few who presumed moths to be uniformly brown and a bit boring could hold that view after gazing on the Deilephila, big bold creatures dressed as if ready to star in an 80’s music video.

E is for Elephant Hawk-moth

Insects may be vital elements of every ecosystem, worth billions to the global economy. Understanding their biology may well make a fascinating contribution to knowledge. But I’m suspicious of the idea that these worthy reasons provide the deep-seated founding motivation for most insect conservationists and entomologists. I reckon that the majority of them do what they do simply because at some point in their life they came across an insect species (or family, or order) that they thought was incredibly cool, much as today’s star attraction is, and they couldn’t help but want more. Call it the hawk-moth hypothesis.

In this way I suppose we’re talking about the insect equivalent of a panda, or indeed an elephant: charismatic megafauna. And it has to be said there’s much criticism of how the so-called ‘big cuddly’ animals hoover up resources and enthusiasm, supposedly at the expense of rarer or unfairly overlooked species. Could this same phenomenon occur not just with exotic endangered mammals but within domestic invertebrate conservation too? Perhaps it might: plenty of tiny, ‘plain’ but very rare insects hardly get a look in compared to the more stimulating dragonflies and butterflies – or hawk-moths. But I prefer to imagine that an encounter with an animal as exuberant as this might not be a distraction, but can instead be a gateway to discovering more. That to delight in the pink of an elephant hawk-moth might give birth to the same regard for the many other glories of the insect world, which may be visually subtler but are hardly any less wonderful.

Tags:

4 Comments

  • We have just found a elephant hawkmoth caterpillar it is the size of my thumb and amazing and very active !

    Emma 22nd August 2013 at 1:01 pm Reply
  • My garden is teeming with Elephant Hawk Moth caterpillars! They mostly keep crawling along my central path where I feel they will get trodden on by my 2 large dogs!
    I keep picking them up carefully and placing them in the raised borders for safety
    Last year I saw one but this year,,,there are lots!
    I don’t know why they are attracted here but they are so lovely and cute!
    I have never seen the actual moth, adult version, but they must have been here at some time or other!

    Jackie B 6th October 2015 at 10:47 pm Reply
  • We had one of these about 10.30pm last night in our utility room, just sitting in the middle of the floor. I took it out and put it onto one of the bushes in my garden. Had no idea at the time of what it was. There is a fair bit of honeysuckle around here. Lived here for thirty years and never seen one before, hope to see more. My daughter spotted one in Dumfries several years ago, had no idea wat it was then either.

    Mrs Irene crowe 21st June 2017 at 7:35 am Reply
  • Found one in my garden this afternoon beautiful moth. I have honeysuckle in both front and back borders.first time seeing a moth like this live in Alva central Scotland

    Anne McAulay 3rd June 2024 at 7:59 pm Reply
Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published.*

Tick the box or answer the captcha.

You might also like

  • Rare Moth Numbers Tumble

    The Dark Bordered Beauty is a moth that certainly lives up to its name, but not many of us will be able to appreciate it due to numbers falling in its isolated populations.

    By Alex Taylor
  • K is for Kittens! (Kitten Moths)

    Perhaps it might seem odd to think of an insect as endearing. But whilst most of them may not be as cuddly as a kitten moth at first glance, they do make for amongst the safest wild creatures for novices to handle, for both the handled and the handler.

    By Chris Foster
  • L is for Ladybird

    Most of our ladybirds are on the northern edge of their ranges in Britain, and so if the climate warms, it’s likely to improve things for them – species may well be able to live further north, and potentially have multiple broods in a year more frequently.

    By Chris Foster
  • F is for Froghopper

    Lurking under almost every mass of cuckoo spit in Britain will be a nymph of the common froghopper, Philaenus spumarius, on its way to becoming one of the highly variable adult colour morph – which range from mottled pale brown to almost solid black.

    By Chris Foster