My brother (who is a keen birder) spent the weekend emptying out owl nest boxes that were used last year in preparation for this years breeding season.
In one nest box in a cemetery near to woodland he found buried deep in the nesting material, a pupa. He brought it to my house, and I compared it to the Poplar Hawk-moth pupa that I have in my fridge (raised from an egg last year) I must say that they do look very similar.

I want to ask if this pupa might survive? It had been in the nest box during this hard winter. It shows no signs of mould, and to my very inexperienced eye, looks perfect.

I have it in the fridge now, but in a separate container, to rule out contamination of either pupa.

Does anyone know what it might be, other than PH-M, and has anyone heard of such a find before?

Cheers,
Denise

Denise, as I or no-one else has come back to you on this I'll take a punt and say that I guess there's no reason why it shouldn't be a Poplar Hawk pupa, if the caterpillar was wandering looking for somewhere to pupate and it came across somewhere like this where it could burrow down into the nesting material. You don't want it emerging anytime soon though, so keep it in the fridge until spring!

M

Hi Mike,

It turned out to be a Lime Hawk Moth. (had it ID'd on the other side, sorry)
Here is the nest box (Tawny Owl chick) and the tree where it was found, and a couple of pics of the pupa.


It's in the fridge awaiting spring already

Denise

Hi Denise,

Is the nestbox on a Lime tree? I don't doubt the ID (and the pupa does look like a Lime Hawk to me), but Lime Hawk larvae are known to find a pupation site as soon as they reach the ground and aren't great wanderers. When I was a lot younger I used to regularly find the pupae at the base of Lime trees, the record was 87 in one year!

Cheers,

Pete

Hi Pete,

Welcome to the dark side
I think my brother said that it was an Oak, but it doesn't look right to me. Anyway, I am chuffed to bits to have two pupae now to (hopefully) hatch out.
I have never seen Lime or Poplar Hawk. Photo's will be forth coming.
87! that's really something.

Denise

Today it hatched, and I was lucky enough to watch it. Simply amazing!

Stunning photos Denise. Well done on the rearing. A moth I'd dearly like here but highly unlikely so I'll just go sulk.....

Thanks Liz.

I've been standing guard over her in the garden for the last hour, so the Blackbirds didn't get her, hoping that she would stay and call some males in. No luck there. She has flown. It was lovely to see her go, but also a bit sad.

Lovely moth Denise. Well done for a successful emergence Jean & Graham

Thanks guys