Caterpillar ID please
Jack 3
Posts: 360
Hi there, does anyone know which caterpillar this is? He/She has been hanging around at the back of my garden, really cute.
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Jack 3
Posts: 360
Jack 3
Posts: 360
Jack 3
Posts: 360
Jack 3
Posts: 360
Hi there, does anyone know which caterpillar this is? He/She has been hanging around at the back of my garden, really cute.
Posts
No idea, but I like the little face it has.
Yes it almost looks like that smiley.
Hey, I found him! He's a Lackey moth. The book says that the caterpillars live gregariously under a silken tent spun over foliage. It sounds very exotic doesn't it? They eat hawthorn, blackthorn and leaves of other deciduous trees. Even more peculiar is the pupa which is double-walled. The caterpillar pupates inside the inner one and between the inner and the outer walls is yellow powder!
Wow, thank you pansyface!
That's really interesting, who'd have thought that something so colourful would turn into a brown moth. He is quite near a hawthorn tree but eating blackberry leaves. I'm going to have to look out for the 'silken tent'. Very clever little thing making a insulated structure.
Thank you for all that information, I really appreciate it!
I like a good hunt.
Worth having or buying a good book on insects including caterpillars. I like the Collins "Complete guide".
Apart from the information, it's entertaining to browse through the names of some of the British moths. Some of my favourite names are "The drinker" "The sprawler" "The suspected" and "the uncertain". My all-time favourite though is the "ruddy highflier" and whilst I realise that the name is a combined description of habit and coloration I always imagine someone asking an leptidopterist "what's that moth there?" and receiving the reply "I don't know, but it's a ruddy high flier!"
Sorry to spoil the serious tone of the thread!
On a more serious note I wish I'd looked up the beetles I found on my lilies last year. I thought they were harmless and even attractive until I found the leaves smothered in filthy larvae and then discovered that I had allowed the lily beetles to decimate my plants and infest the compost in the pots they were in!
Yes I think I'll have to get a book.
Ruddy high flier
that's funny! 'The suspected' I wonder what's that derived from.
It's funny you mentioned this as I found lots of beatles all over a dock plant today that I've been meaning to pull up and didn't know what they were, I took a picture.
What is this?
I counted six or seven of them and they were mating.
Oh, and I forgot to say I just saw the biggest flying beetle (which I've just realised I humorously spelt wrong in last post) flying over my garden. I think it must've been a stag beetle because it looked the size of a small bird hovering around then shot off.
Nice little bug, I'm not well up on bugs but think this is Coreus marginatus, Dock Bug.
As i was saying goodnight to a (male) neighbour who had dropped in for a chat I saw a large beetle wandering over the doorstep. Without thinking, I said "ooh look, I haven't seen a Cockchafer in years!"
He jumped back smartish and gave me a funny look. It took me a while to realise why.