The larva of this beautiful hawkmoth, Deilephila elpenor, was likened to an ‘elephant’ by a 17th century entomologist who considered that, when searching for food, the extended front segments of the larval moth resembled an ‘elephant’s trunk’!
This night-flying moth may be found in habitats ranging from rough grassland and woodland to town gardens where, instead of physically landing on flowers to feed on nectar, it hovers by flowers like honeysuckle and willowherb and feeds using its long proboscis. In addition to their having an attractive fragrance, the foodplants can be located at nighttime by the hawkmoth possessing very sensitive eyes that allows it to even see colours in low-light conditions.
After mating, the female moth lays one or two eggs at a time on the underside of leaves of the common rosebay willowherb (Epilobium angustifolium) or another of the larval foodplants. The eggs hatch in under fifteen days. Whereas the emerging larvae are green, the full-grown larvae may be brown in colour with eyespots on the fifth and sixth segments of the body – these segments can be puffed up when the larva is alarmed to form a false ‘head’ with staring eyes!
At the end of the larval stage, the Elephant Hawkmoth pupates on the surface of the ground in a rough case of dead leaves and other debris held together by silk threads. The moth overwinters in this state before emerging as an adult in late spring to mid-summer.
This life cycle of egg, larva, pupa, adult is typical of all Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) and many other insect orders, and is known as ‘complete metamorphosis’ because of the four distinct life stages. Some insect orders, like true bugs and grasshoppers for example, hatch from eggs as nymphs and gradually develop through a series of moults into adults; this life cycle, without having a pupal stage, is known as ‘incomplete metamorphosis’.
