Just look at this beauty! This is a beautiful Emperor Moth Saturnia pavonia caterpillar, a silk moth native to the UK but the cocoon has no commercial value. Close up you can see the fantastic colours and the amazing hair tufts but what I want you to really to see is how well he is camouflaged in amongst the Hawthorn leaves he is eating even with all that body decoration. When you are out looking for caterpillars, most are incredibly hard to spot but what you want to do is look for the eaten leaves first then lift the branches and try to look underneath them. Happy hunting.....
* UPDATE *
The Emperors are all pupating now. They have made beautiful cocoons out of silk they have produced and have also curled hawthorns leaves around them. Really clever!
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