File:A Death's Head Hawk-moth CATERPILLAR 26 september 2007 (1727802831).jpg

The Death's head hawk moth is so called because of the skull-like pattern on the thorax. As far as the latin name is concerned, according to Pinhey (1975): "Atropos, one of the Fates, was a daughter of Nox and Erebus and was illustrated... with veiled face and a pair of scissors to cut the thread of life. This is the thoracic pattern of a mask with scissors below it. A sinister but undeserved portrait."

On 26 th September 2007,on a butterflying visit to Karuvarakundu, (Malappuram district in Kerala, at about 500_750 ft altitude )stumbled upon a Moth larva of about length of 90 to100 mm and which seemed matured and fully developed, I decided to bring it home knowing that the larva plant Dhobi’s kerchief (Mussaenda glabrata) on which It was sighted is very common. I kept the larva in a paper box for a day and fed it with leaves of the larva plant It devoured about 4 to 5 leaves per day and was almost engaged in feeding every time I observed without much movements On the second day kept the box open and supplied it with a small twig of dhobi’s kerchjef Full of leaves, so that the most natural environment is provided with The larva didn’t stray out from the open box kept on the window sill Leaves disappeared one after another very quickly The larva devoured the leaves from the tip down to the stem nothing remained of the leaves On 30th Sunday morning found the larva resting on the inside corners of the box at around 6:30am,it had developed a light brown coloration along the top of the body And after 15 minutes or so, when looked for the larva it was not there anywhere near the box We were surprised by the missing larva and started searching for it and after half an hour found it on the floor, which was moving very quickly searching for something, whenever it met with a wall it changed its course never climbing upwards, it was so impatient, no provocations prevented it from moving And I concluded the time has arrived for pupation, I had no idea of what would be the environment required, heard that some moth larvae pupate on soil I kept a thick paper sheet along its path to retrieve it from the floor, alarmingly it tried to lift the sheet and was trying to hide under it, some how I managed to capture it and put it again in the box, this time it was not calm, it swirled and wriggled violently Without much thought I spread some wet river sand which was the only soil available on a heavily raining morning, on the bottom of the box and closed the box and left for its fate. My anxiety and curiosity prompted me to open the box again within 10 minutes To my surprise the larva was digging into the sand. Now, my hopes brightened and I put some more sand into the box without hurting the larva and the larva completely submerged into the wet sand and the total time it took was about 15 minutes Sound of cracking sand was heard as it moved underneath the sand layer At around 12 noon I looked again and the larva was out of the soil ,soil particles clinging all over its body, thinking it may need further feeding I put some fresh leaves into the box And this time too it moved violently, and I shut the box again At around 1:00 pm I opened the box again and found two holes on the soil and it went deep into the sand again, the cracking of sound was heard throughout the day and night I kept the box open again And the next evening 1st October, at around 9 pm noticed some of the sand over its body was removed, it might have wriggled heavily to achieve this, the head was still under the sand Now the sand cracking sound reduced On 2nd October 10 pm observed the sand over its head is also wriggled away The next day nothing happened, but observed that the body of the larva was shrinking considerably On 3rd I left home in the early morning and was not able to look at it till I came back at 9 pm,and the larva had been moulted When I tried to remove the shredded skin to get a better picture on 4th October afternoon It wriggled violently and left it undisturbed

Assuming it is time for emergence shifted the pupa on to a tray spread with sand to get better view of the pupa on 18th October After a long wait of 24 days On 22nd it emerged at around 8 PM In my absence my family managed and celebrated the occasion and the first picture of The moth was taken by my elder son Gautam The whole family was eagerly waiting for something very cute and colourful From such a beauty of a caterpillar and was a little bit surprised seeing this weird moth After a long photosession I left the moth in its box to have another photosession in the daylight On 23rd early morning around 5 AM it was fully prepared to fly away Fluttering the wings with high frequency and was restless And heard some noise like that made by some beetles and left it without disturbing at 7 AM I took it out and had some shots but was little bit surprised seeing it very cool and in some meditative mood I left the moth for its fate at a safe place and it was there for more than hour And no life history is known since then

My curiosities are Its strange behaves like pupating underneath soil emerging in the evening, (all the moths that I have reared were reborn in the early morning) doing meditation after sunrise etc and about its egg, how large? Colour etc