Modest Sphinx Moth Caterpillar at Oxtongue Lake

Modest Sphinx Moth Caterpillar on the ground at Oxtongue Lake, Ontario, Canada

How would you like to come face to face with this fierce-looking caterpillar if you were about knee high to a grasshopper?  It was about 4 inches long (10 cm), around 1/2 inch in diameter (1 cm), and surprisingly quick at navigating through the tangle of grass.  This is the larva of a Modest Sphinx Moth (Pachysphinx modesta) that we saw in the community of Oxtongue Lake, Ontario, near the end of August. Read more