Caterpillar Identification

We found this crawling across the Courtyard ...it is quite large.





Who is the chappie please? We put him in the orchard.

 

Not certain may be one of the Hawkmoths. There are id tabs on t'internet thst should help.

 

Death's head hawkmoth or Privet hawkmoth

 

Ah, thank You @Allotment Boy and @Jiffy. I will look further. It is so different than the others we had ... They are SO cute ......

 

Can you keep them somewhere with a mix of vegetation - a jar or similar with a perforated lid and see if they develop further over the next few weeks/months ? They are fascinating especially if you can follow their development.

 

No, sadly they gone into the orchard.

 

I think it's a deaths head caterpillar as well. They are occassionally seen here but I think they need the warmth of southern Europe to survive the winter.
I may be mis-remembering but I think they eat plants in the solanum family or at least the only time I've seen one was when it was munching on one of our potato plants.