“This animal appears to have an exoskeleton and is a really thick worm,” reports this reader in Spring Hill, Florida. “What is this guy?” she asks about the brown, segmented creature pictured below.
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To start off with, we must thank our reader for these amazing pictures and a fantastic video. The quality is crisp and clear, and the lighting is great: these are some really great shots. They will make an excellent addition to our library.
In describing the creature, our reader writes that “it burrows down by using its mouth and scooting its own body.” Additionally, the creature has “no joints or separations in body. It has a dark tail, but it appears completely attached to its body: it curls around 180 degrees and looks attached at the back of the body. […] He has a point on the front of his face.”
“I originally found this worm when I was emptying soil from a gardening bag that was growing tomatoes and bell peppers. He was in one of the sides where I had already cut down the tomato plants because they were dying/not flowering, but the roots were left for a while.”
Finally, she thanks us and says that she loves our site, to which we thank her in return for consulting us about this mysterious brown creature!
This brown creature is actually the pupa of a Sphinx moth. The part of it that looks like a tail is actually a sheath in which the moth’s tongue develops. Likewise, the points on the front of the pupa’s ‘face’ might actually be the developing face of the moth, as one is able to see the eyes and antennae of a moth at the pupal stage.
In any case, pupae are completely harmless as they are immobile. The movement we see in the video is likely a result of the moth getting ready to hatch, or a result of it being disturbed. Sphinx moths are neither harmful, nor are their larvae, so our reader really has nothing to worry about. Leaving the pupa outside is the best move.
To conclude, the brown creature our reader found is a Sphinx moth pupa. We hope this article proves insightful, and we wish our reader the very best!
All About Worms is always free, always reader-supported, we don't subject you to ads or annoying video pop-ups. But it does cost us money out of our pocket to keep the site going (nearly 20 years so far!) So your tips via CashApp, Venmo, or Paypal are appreciated! Receipts will come from ISIPP Publishing.
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