When You Poke at Hornworms of Impatiens Hawkmoth with Colourful Eyespots….

A few black larvae of impatiens hawkmoth (a.k.a. white-banded hunter hawkmoth; Theretra oldenlandiae oldenlandiae, family Sphingidae) were found resting still on the leaf or stalk of rose balsam (a.k.a. garden balsam,touch-me-not or spotted snapweed; Impatiens balsamina, family Balsaminaceae), one of their favourite host plants, in the roadside flowerbed. The hornworm had colourful and conspicuous eyespots along both sides of the body to scare off predatory birds. But when I touched them with my fingertip, they didn’t fight back nor drop to the ground (quick escape) but crawled away sluggishly. The horn at the rear end of the caterpillar wasn’t used as a weapon at all. They seemed to be so confident in the deterrent effect of the eyespots that they had no other defensive behaviours. Furthermore, the larvae of Theretra oldenlandiae are known to be vulnerable and helpless to the attack of parasitic wasps. Captured twice in the cloudy midafternoon (around 15:50 PM) of early-October and sunny early-afternoon (around 12:15 PM) of mid-October 2024 in Japan. For a full story (text in Japanese); https://sigma-nature-vlog.blogspot.com/2026/02/blog-post_21.html