Hi, I think they're best left alone to get on with it, they've managed for years without our help, Derek.

Please left the caterpillar alone to do it's own thing!

Please disregard what other people have said, personally I think it's a good idea, it will be a fantastic school project for her and and it should get her interested in nature, which is lacking in children.

Put the caterpillar in a large jar or a small fish tank and cover the container with a piece of cheese cloth or mesh for ventilation secured with a rubber band.

Line the base of the container with some paper towel or damp soil. Include an upright stick in the container for the caterpillar to climb on and also for the emerging moth to hang onto and dry its wings.

Caterpillars will eat a large amount, so feed it fresh leaves. They are fussy, so different species will eat different plant leaves. I'm not sure what the hawk moth caterpillar prefers, but try something like cabbage leaves and see what happens.

I hope that your daughter manages to raise it into a moth. Good luck.

Take a round cookie tin. Make a cylinder of screen either metal or plastic to fit inside the bottom of the tin and place the lid of the tin on top. Staple the cylinder on either end so it does not unravel-there you have just made an excellent vivarium for the study of many insect species. The height of the screen cylinder should be around 36 inches I found that an excellent height even suitable for the preying mantises and mourning cloak butterflies that I raised. Place a layer of very loose potting soil on the bottom so the caterpillar can burrow into it to pupate from which it will emerge next spring. While still a caterpillar place it's favorite food source. When it's ready to pupate it will stop eating be still for a few days and then start moving around to find a burrowing site. In the meantime study as much as you can about this insect. Get to know all about it and don't forget to take as many different pictures of it as you can. An excellent beginners book on this subject is Edwin Way Teale's " The Insect World Of Henry J Fabre"? Most important, get a little notebook and keep a daily diary of your observations of this insect writing down what you see including date and time. You may even find in your records a behavior that was never noticed before and as a young naturalist, new discoveries in the secret lives of these creatures is a wonderful accomplishment and can pave the way of you becoming a great scientist.

In addition, Myron is absolutely correct. This is an education of a child. How wonderful it is to get the child's mind out of the faux world of lightning fast computer or I phone info bytes and into the slower world of direct observation, reading and writing with pen and paper. What is lacking today is the childs ability to talk and reason to ones self. They are fixated on very rapid information input which gives them no time to think about what they are taking in and they do not develop what I call an INNER VOICE or putting it another way, they take no time to talk to themselves about their experiences in the world. They look and take in but when the images stop there is nothing, their brain goes still with no self conversing about what has been filling in their mind so they go looking for more mindless stimulation to fill in the void. What results is a act and react personality with no development of complex thinking. It is getting so bad now that I truly believe that they are having trouble discerning reality from fantasy which can lead to really destructive personality and behavior changes, for example, impulse behavior and the inability to reason and forsee that actions have consequences not only to oneself but to others as well. Observation of the natural world is an excellent way to get the child to slow down thinking to allow for more elaborate thought processes to come into play so reasoning can be enhanced and the final development of who they are more complete.

Looks like my two will be fine. We are always out and about enjoying looking and talking about nature, they both know several species of birds, lots of wild flowers and trees, and because I home educate them we can focus on nature as well.

Derek and Moon Grower, The caterpillar was already removed by another neighbour (no idea where he got it from).

Thanks Myron and Loosestrife,. I will pass on the information you have provided.

Catty, that is great to hear that your children are interested in nature and have gained useful and interesting knowledge.

If you are going to give it fuchsia stems make sure that those in charge put them in water to keep them fresh- the caterpillar won't eat wilted stuff.However it would prefer willowherb.

Thanks Steragram, we have no willowherb round here.

You sure are lucky not to have any willowherb around. We live on the banks of the river Garnock and on the other side of the river is an SSSI (Site of special scientific interest) basically that means that anything that wants to grow is allowed to grow and the seeds blow across into our garden
! Grrrr!

Goodness, the small one is one our persistent annual weeds.
Still, if you haven't got any the caterpillar won't have been used to feeding on it...

Looks like I opened a can of caterpillars here? LOL.

The other foodplant is bedstraw but I don't suppose you have any of that either. It would be easier if the school wants to do this to choose an easier species such as the cabbage white - they pupate and hatch with no trouble at all and eat cabbage and nasturtium leaves. If educating the child is the point of the exercise the choosing a caterpillar which will survive is a good starting place. I doubt very much whether this one will if you have none if its preferred food - fuchsia is only a third choice for them.

Children should also be taught not to pick up creatures and remove them to take home just because they look unusual.
If the moth does succeed in emerging will there be any food plants nearby for it or is it doomed to starve before its flown far?

There are plenty of nectar rich flowers still in flower round here.

The caterpillar was given to her by another neighbour. I have no idea where he got it.

I see what you mean by the cabbage white.

Personally, that would have been my caterpillar of choice.

I entirely agree with you Sue, but include adults in the last bit!!, Derek.

To a child almost everything looks unusual, they are new to the world. Let them bring a bug home in a jar and look at it for a while and maybe even learn about it. Don't worry about them depleting the insect population with natural curiosity. Unfortunately there are not enough children doing these kinds of things anymore.

The Lepidoptera Breeders Association is a UK based privately ran enterprise which supports and promotes the study of Moths and Butterflies by practical hands on interaction. Find their website here
http://www.lba.uk.com/aboutus.aspx
There is contact details on their website if you need advice urgently
Contact Details
Email Address: stephanie@lba.uk.com
There is also a phone number given.

Thanks for the link Scotsgran.

Loosetrife I wasn't thinking about depleting the insect population, I was thinking about teaching respect and compassion for living things.

While in grammar school I was taught about a man who's name has faded considerably, he was Albert Schweitzer. From the study of his life I and my classmates were first exposed to the ideal of reverence for life in all it's forms. It is sad that Dr. Schweitzer is no longer used as an example of that concept in schools. To quote him, " I am life which wills to live and I exist in the midst of life which wills to live."