For this round of the challenge I present a wonderful caterpillar I encountered this summer -- for the first time in my life. It was caterpillar of an elephant hawk moth - considered to be a rare specie. Happy find it was.
I found it eating off the fireweed tea leaves. As I've educated myself later, this is their favourite food, so what we have here is its typical behavior in its natural habitat. There is a natural 'forest' of these plants around - but those caterpillars dont cover every second plant, quite on the contrary!
My post goes for Photofeed #wildlife contest, Round 187
| location: | Vyritza, Russia | August 2026 | natural light |
| camera/lens: | Xiaomy 15T | smartphone | jpeg |
| t 1/100 | f/3 | ISO 125 | PH color-corr |
All images taken by me, copyright (c) 
@qwerrie
@qwerrie