Friday 20 March 2009

Caterpillar Identification?

While I was weeding today I found this caterpillar but I have no idea what it is. I have looked at pictures of green caterpillars until I went cross eyed but could find nothing to match. If you can help I would be most grateful. I should think it is about 30mm long. (After more searching - it may well be the caterpillar of the cabbage looper moth)

Green Caterpillar

During our afternoon walk the ewes and lambs in the closest field were much calmer and just watched us. The older lambs are now happily munching the grass so the ewes can relax a bit.

Ewe

Lamb Lamb

As well as the milder weather bringing out plenty of colourful flowers it is also accelerating the weed growth and bringing out the aphids. I have been plagued with them on my plants in the cold conservatory for several weeks and now they are appearing on the outdoor plants.

Flower with Bugs

I adore the subtle way the colour changes on each petal of these flowers.

Flowers

We are at the Spring Equinox and British Summer Time starts in another nine days so there is plenty of activity to look forward to. Looks like I will have to drag out the mower very soon as the grass has put on a spurt this past couple of days.

I have not managed to spot the Blue Tits in the box today but there is more moss in the bottom so they must have made a few visits.

4 comments:

  1. Beautiful photos again John, lovely colours on the flowers and great caterpillar pic. After trawling through my butterfly book the best I can come up with is a possible choice of three, the Meadow Brown, the Wall or the Speckled Wood. Not sure if any are correct but I too have crossed eyes now!!

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  2. Hi ShySongbird - I think I have solved it after more investigation. It would appear to be the caterpillar of the cabbage looper, a brown moth.

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  3. ShySongbird - wrist slapped here - I forgot to say thank you for taking the time to look through your butterfly book. John

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  4. Hi again John, as soon as I'd posted that comment it occurred to me it might be the caterpillar of a moth but I didn't have time to investigate that. Well done for solving the mystery and definitely no need for a slapped wrist, you will have enough trouble taking photos with crossed eyes without an injured wrist as well!!

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Thank you for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Any comment, or correction to any information or identification I get wrong, is most welcome. John

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