Insects: The Lime Hawk-moth

The World of Minibeasts

Living at High Speed - The Lime Hawk-moth

This is the lime hawk-moth (Mimas tiliae) with its squat, furry body bent upwards.

It is a common species. You can find it from April till September in gardens and on road sides. During the day, it sits on the bark of trees, mainly on lime and elm trees, rarely on other species.

Below, there is the caterpillar in a tree top. It quite resembles the caterpillar of Liguster hawk-moth.

Many caterpillars of the family resemble each others and are not easy to distinguish at first sight.

This picture shows the way it climbs in trees. Its many pairs of legs are quite useful to do so.

With its mouth pieces at the bottom of its head it rasps off parts of the leaf an its them.

Its "tail" quite looks like one of the leaf-stalks in the surroundings.

...no good at sight but good at smelling

The oblique streaks on its back imitate tributary veins of a leaf running towards the central vein, which is represented by the wavy shape of the caterpillar's back. It finishes by the "tail", as does the central vein of a leaf by the stalk.

The caterpillar by its pattern displays the essential parts of a leaf, blending imperceptibly into its surroundings. Its pattern is the perfect camouflage for a life in the tops of trees.

In the picture on the left there are the details of the caterpillar's front. At the bottom of the head the mouth parts are visible. Further down, there are the three pairs of main legs that already in this larval state show a distinguished segmentation.

At the left base of the head, four minute eyes can be recognized. They are very simple eyes that merely allow to distinguish light and dark. In contrast to a grown-up moth, a caterpillar has no good eye-sight, but gets its orientation mainly by smell and feeling.

	Kleiner Weinschwärmer	Ligusterschwärmer	Eyed Hawk-moth	Willow-herb Hawk-moth
	Lime Hawk-moth	Pappelschwärmer	Linienschwärmer	Broad-bordered Bee Hawk-moth