A Very Hungry Caterpillar

 

This is the caterpillar of the Grey dagger moth, it was one of several that were making a meal of our small willow tree.

The gets its name from the black dagger like markings on its dusty grey wings, but the caterpillar as you can see is very brightly coloured with a striking red and yellow colour scheme and a dramatic black hump a short way along its back.

This is a fairly common species and can be seen munching on leaves through the summer months from July to October before they find shelter under loose bark or in rotten wood in November where they overwinter as pupae before emerging in spring as a moth.

Bugs and Bees

Having posted a selection of butterflies yesterday I decided to continue with a bug theme today.

As with the butterflies getting a good image of flying insects is a real challenge as they seldom stay still for more than a few seconds at a time as they are always so busily engaged in their search for food.  So I am especially pleased with the third of today's pictures which is nice and sharp, and its wings look crystal clear.

In the fourth picture of a different honey bee you can see that it has extended its proboscis to feed on the nectar.  

I don't know what the beetle in the fifth picture is, it was creeping on a stone at Gelert's Grave at Beddgelert near the River Glaslyn in North Wales. It looks almost prehistoric.

I was really excited about the last two images.  This is the larva of a cream streaked ladybird.  It had hitched ride on the window of my car and I had expected it to crawl away. But as you can see from the final picture it didn't, it hung on and metamorphosed into the adult bug.  It held on for the whole journey to and from Wales even at speeds of XX MPH.

I am pleased to report that it has now completely hatched and the fully formed ladybird is now doing whatever ladybirds do...