Celia Hart's blog about what's going on in and around her studio.
Art, printmaking, inspirations, gardening, vegetables, hens, landscapes, wild flowers, East Anglia, adventure, travel.

Sunday, 13 July 2008

WHAT is that . . . ?!!!

While gardening early this morning my eye focussed on a leaf as I was trimming plants back along the lawn edge. It looked a bit peculiar, was it diseased? or was it a leaf gall? It was on the leaf of a species of willow grown for the rather gorgeous furry silver catkins. It moved! What is that?!!!!


On closer inspection we found it had a bigger and fatter friend . . .

A search on Google and a check through The Reader's Digest Field Guide to the Butterflies and othe insects of Britain has identified these masters of camouflage as Sallow Kitten moth caterpillars. Sallow Kitten – weren't they a girl group in the 90s?

2 comments:

  1. Hi Celia.

    That`s one caterpillar i`ve never seen. It`s very similar to my Puss Moths & slightly smaller. Well spotted.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Do you think those kitten moths would stop the neighbourhood cats from digging up my seed bed?

    ReplyDelete

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