Oleander Hawk Moth (Daphnis Nerii) larva at Mylapore - Chennai

[Madisern91]

how long can they survive?

[chennaiNature]

@Madisern91 I sorry I have no idea...

[Jawa2lak]

Nice. It is Oleander Hawk moth (Dalphnis nerii) green Caterpillar

[chennaiNature]

@Jawa2lak Thanks - I checked out pictures for Dalphnis nerii larvae - they appear to have a white stripe and dots - they can't be seen in this larva .....

Also, I do recollect seeing a dying moth many months back - it was unusually large and had marbled markings like an adult Dalphnis nerii, only it was totally brown, not green... I'm not sure if this is a local variation or some other Daphnis species

[Jawa2lak]

@chennaiNature you can see the white stripe from the antenna in 0.03 to 0.07 and 0.13 to 0.18. I compared it with image of Dalphnis nerii . It almost matches. I think so. Other species images are having lot of variations. Very interesting.

[chennaiNature]

@Jawa2lak Another problem with images from the net is that the larva color changes with age - I found that for Daphnis Nerii, those near the pupa stage are very brownish while smaller ones are bright green like the one shown above; Some images also have conspicuous white spots not seen here - so images from the net may not be wholly reliable. I'll go with Daphnis Nerii - we do have a few Oleander trees nearby!

Thanks