Look What Followed Me Home...

[ellyssian]

Martian Puppy Dog
Originally uploaded by ellyssian

Actually, aequitaslevitas found him in the mint.

I went through my usually-insta-ID sources, and couldn't find him listed there.

Any ideas?

Click through for a few more pictures of different angles.


Edit: We found the answer! Rachel and I figured it out - it's a hermit sphinx moth caterpillar.

Comments

eeeew...

[patrixa.livejournal.com]

at first I thought it was a slug -- but then, it looks segmented. a legless multipede? (Iknow, ",,-pede" means footed).

How long, in inches, is/was it?

Re: eeeew...

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

2 to 3 inches. Maybe 4.

I think it's a looper, but the markings look like stuff on swallowtails...

Re: eeeew...

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

"About 2 inches" - aequitaslevitas measured, and it was curled a bit...

[tattermuffin.livejournal.com]

*sigh* I need more coffee - I was trying to figure out why, if the bug was at the mint (you know, where money is made), y'all brought it home ...

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Silly, money doesn't grow on a weedy little herbaceous plant like mint, everyone knows it grows on trees! =)

[thenea.livejournal.com]

It's a caterpillar of some kind. I don't have time to figure out which, but it does look similar to a couple here.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

That's one of the two families I narrowed it down to... more so in that one, but the spot(s) on it don't show up anywhere there...

The spots make me think swallowtail, with the false-face, but other than that it looks nothing like one.

But...

[patrixa.livejournal.com]

it's really an alien from a very small planet.

[rowancat.livejournal.com]

I only had time for a quick glance.
I thought you were posting a photo of
some vaguely steampunkish alien robot creature :)

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Heh.

There's one over on Flickr that I think looks kind of like one of the heads of the two headed dragon in the movie Willow - but that's fantasy, not steampunk! =)

I should probably edit this earlier post with the answer, now that we discovered it!