What on earth is this?

Never seen this creature before.

He was long at first but when I came close his head became fatter and it looked like he saw the phone and moved away from it quite quickly.

The black leg in the first pic is my cat.
The creature was about 3 inches long.

Any ideas what it is?

Went for more pics

He actually became a bit aggressive!!

The caterpillar of the Elephant Hawk Moth, I think

Googling 'three inch grub with false eyes ireland' says Elephant Hawk Moth as above.

More pics

SouthWesterly

Yes, you should be very afraid of such an aggressive creature as a moth caterpillar

SouthWesterly

SouthWesterly wrote: »

Yes, you should be very afraid of such an aggressive creature as a moth caterpillar

It was a fear of the unknown :pac:

Seamai

I'd imagine the false eyes on each section are to frighten of preditors.

looksee

We had an elephant hawk moth on the window recently, they are quite big and have a little 'trunk'.

jmkennedyie

By the way the adult moth is also a stunner.
http://www.irishmoths.net/pages-moth/m-1991.html

whelzer

jmkennedyie wrote: »

By the way the adult moth is also a stunner.
http://www.irishmoths.net/pages-moth/m-1991.html

Wow - would love to see one! Thanks for posting

SouthWesterly

TheTorment wrote: »

It was a fear of the unknown :pac:

You do know you are bigger than it

rock22

I found one a number of years ago. They tend to move the head in imitation of a small snake, to frighten off birds, so they do look at bit aggressive at times.

Would be interested to know how common ( or rare) they are as I never saw one since.

Bill Hook

I found one last year when I was cutting back rosebay willowherb. I haven't seen any this year.

SouthWesterly

SouthWesterly wrote: »

You do know you are bigger than it

I'm bigger than my wife and I've the fear of God of her