Little pleasures
We’ve not been the healthiest of people lately, resulting in more than a couple of visits to our local medical walk-in centre (or doc-in-the-box, as I like to call it). Today the centre was more crowded than usual, so when Mister went in, he was less than happy. But they got him in and out quickly, and just in time to see a beautiful, whopping great caterpillar trying to go in the door as Mister was coming out (maybe the poor caterpillar wasn’t feeling up to par?).
Apparently the little guy (the caterpillar, that is) caused a bit of a stir at the centre. Some kind soul rescued him from the automatic door and footfalls of the ill and injured and placed him on a small grassy area adjacent to the centre. Mister came home full of life, excited at having seen such a fantastic beast. He tried to identify the species online but couldn’t narrow the selection beyond three, so he bundled me into the car and we went to see if it was still hanging around.
To our surprise, the caterpillar was happily going in circles beneath one of the nurses’ cars in the parking lot! We waited patiently as he wound his way around and around, up and back, until he finally decided to try to climb one of her front tyres. Then Mister gently lifted him off the ground and let me snap a few photos before placing him on the trunk of a nearby ash tree, which as it turns out is the favourite food of this species. It seemed only fair to try to repay the chubby guy for giving us a little lift.
In the end we identified the little chap as a Sphinx Ligustri, which is commonly known as a Privet Hawk moth.
What a cute l’il mudger!!!