Had a strange visitor in the garden the other day, and managed a few photos, though more interesting poses were soon to be seen, shortly after putting my camera away.
I believe this one to be the caterpillar stage of the White-lined Sphinx Moth:
The stem of this poor flower is of course bent double with its head almost touching the ground, as this relative behemoth overweights it, while it just hung there for perhaps half an hour. Shortly after putting my camera away, it was seen to do a rather surprisingly quick U-turn and head back up the stalk and disappear back into the garden. We often see the White-lined Sphinx Moth buzzing through the garden of an evening, so they are not at all uncommon here abouts. But the caterpillar of the species is rarely seen and I suspect that part of the life cycle to be a brief one. I have run across cocoons that I suspected might be of the type, though I don't really know, but in any event it is good to see such critters from time to time, so long as we're not overrun with them.