Identification of a moth please

[green fingers]

Is there anyone who can tell me what kind of moth this is please.
It frightened my daughter last night and we have never seen one as big as this before.





As you can see it is long as my 17 year old daughters palm and measures around 2 inches long and it's wing span was around 4 inches.

[cajary]

Without being able to see the head properly, it looks like a "death's head" hawk moth. They pop over from the continent to say hello every now and again. They feature in the movie "Silence of the Lambs"
Don't swallow the pupa

[green fingers]

thanks cajary, you put us on the right track, it's one of these

http://www.sussex-butterflies.org.uk...g_PG2_img1.jpg

A Convolvulus Hawk-moth.

[PlantingJoe]

Wow, it's huge! I've only ever seen ones half the size of that, and I was impressed with those!