NO NEED to fear this hairy monster. This poplar hawkmoth couldn’t even try to bite you: it has no functioning mouthparts, and will never be able to eat.
These moths (Laothoe populi) are found all over Europe, and can reach the size of a small bat. Unlike other moths, they have no proboscis protruding from their head, so are unable to sip nectar from flowers.
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Instead, these adults rely solely on body fat they stored for energy when they were caterpillars. This keeps them going for just three or four weeks, meaning the race is on to find a partner and mate.
The large insects use pheromones to find each other. This moth is a male, and will use his yellow antennae to search for scent-emitting females in the night. The females send their signals and wait. They are so weighed down by eggs that flying is too strenuous.
If they mate successfully, the eggs are laid and more than 100 pale green caterpillars will emerge a week later. Before winter arrives, these bulk up on the food that gives their species its common name – the leaves of poplar trees.
“I wouldn’t have stood a chance had this individual been flying,” says photographer Alex Hyde of this close-up. He snapped this hawkmoth as it rested in Derbyshire, UK, early one summer morning. “It is humbling to remember that we are surrounded by a multitude of fascinating creatures every day, most of which are too small for us to give a second look to as we charge through our busy lives,” Hyde says.
Photographer
Alex Hyde,
This article appeared in print under the headline “Eye to eye”
