A fellow bug explorer found a caterpillar crawling its way around on the floor the other day. Thinking it might be lost, confused or possibly looking for a human to take care of it, the decision was made to find out what it was and see if we could raise it in captivity. A little bit of digging suggested that it may well be the caterpillar of the Lime Hawk Moth, Mimas tiliae. 
Mimas tiliae turns out to be a reasonably common species, particularly in the South of England, that is often found on tree-lined avenues. The adult is a pretty cool looking moth that has nice pink markings on its wings, and it seems to be possible to raise them to adults relatively easily. Only slight problem with that is when it comes to lepidopterans (butterflies & moths) both my fellow bug explorer and I know the theory, but are severely lacking in practical experience. Still, never ones to let that stop us, we're going to do our best. It seems that it's colouration may mean that it was looking for some soil to dig into and pupate over winter. It might take a while, but we'll see if we can raise the little caterpillar into an adult Lime Hawk Moth.
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