Small elephant hawk-moth
The small elephant hawk-moth is a pretty pink and yellow moth, a bit like a strawberry and custard sweet. It flies in early summer evenings at the edges of meadows and on heaths. It is the smaller cousin of the elephant hawk-moth.
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Fun facts
Most hawk-moth caterpillars have a little horn on their tail end. This one has only a small double bump instead.
Its caterpillar is grey or brown, which helps it hide among plants.
In dry, hot parts of Asia, these moths have no pink on them at all.
In the mountains of Asia it can live as high as 2,500 metres.
People often mix it up with the elephant hawk-moth, but it is smaller and more yellow.
Most asked questions about Small elephant hawk-moth
?What does the small elephant hawk-moth eat?
The moths drink flower nectar. The caterpillars eat bedstraw and willowherb.
?How big is the small elephant hawk-moth?
Its wings measure about 4.5 to 5 centimetres from tip to tip.
?How do you tell it from the elephant hawk-moth?
It is smaller, more yellow, and has no thick pink stripe down its body.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Deilephila porcellus
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Sphingidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Sphingidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Africa, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Deilephila porcellus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Ben Sale from UK. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
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