At the weekend F and I were in Mid Wales when we spotted this creature.
A very bright caterpillar, the size of my index finger, was crawling around in the grass on the wooded hillside. I had no idea what sort of caterpillar it was,but I knew I had never seen anything like this before.
When we got back home I searched on the internet but could not identify it so I tried the ISpot website. Having put the picture on the site it didn't take long for the creature to be identified.
It is the caterpillar of the goat moth. The goat month lays its eggs on tree trunks and the caterpillar lives inside the tree trunk feeding on wood for five years then when it is ready to pupate it leaves the tree trunk and searches on the ground for a place to bury itself while it changes from caterpillar to moth.
The blurb on the website says that this caterpillar is quite rare and not seen very often as they leave their tree trunk nursery and find an underground home within twenty-four hours. When it emerges next June or July as a moth, it has a very short life, not feeding but finding a mate and laying its eggs on a tree trunk, ready for the next five year cycle to start.
2 comments:
What a very interesting caterpillar. You were lucky to see it!
That is really special that you were able to see it. I can see why you did not recognize it since it hides for so much of its life.
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