What initially looked like a dry leaf around the stem of Great willowherb (Epilobium hirsutum) turned out to be a caterpillar, that of the Elephant hawk-moth (Deilephila elpenor). Unlike the beautiful moth that it will change into I’ve seen this caterpillar that is as large as a finger before but not yet in the garden, a new garden species!
Three caterpillars, two brown and one green, methodically removed the leaves from the plant stems. After five days they took off, one crawled on the garden tiles looking for a suitable place to pupate, the other two had abandoned their positions in the cover of night.

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