Day 18 - Hawk Moth

Hawk Moths...

This remarkable little fellow was spotted outside the Fauna Forever HQ last night. I am not absolutely certain about this, but I believe him to be a Hawk Moth type caterpillar.

Either way as you can see from the picture he is absolutely massive. There are some pretty amazing species of caterpillar lurking out here in the Amazon.

As it turns out, a caterpillar is actually one of the main things you want to avoid touching, as many hide a nasty bite, sting, furry hostilities of all kinds. Indeed, if you consider the plight of a caterpillar, ambling about in a bid to eat as much as possible before being eaten by far more agile predators, then the need for some serious deterrents becomes a bit of  no brainer.

What was very interesting was the reaction of children to this little character. The kids were absolutely amazed and delighted by his antics. This goes a long way towards illustrating that despite our modern obsessions of video games and TV culture, there is still a lot that nature can do to teach and inspire.

Indeed, beautiful creatures can evoke and inspire far more meaningful and positive interactions with the world than days in front of the TV, although tele undoubtedly does have a role to play in education, news sharing and a wider global debate.

In any case, it was nice to see kids interacting with amazement and fun at a very simple, beautiful creature.