Spotted caterpillar - or similar larva

[Bruce Williams]

Help with identification appreciated.

Bruce

[Bruce Williams]

I've done a bit more work....but

Firstly I'm not at all sure this is a caterpillar?

However....on the assumption that it is, I've checked through Jim Porter's Colour Identification of Caterpillars of the British Isles. Nearest I can get to it is maybe an Apamea species? I'm pretty sure it's single brooded as I've seen a few specimens over the last week or so and they've all been solitary.

Size is only ~20mm - so could it be an early instar?

Bruce

[UB4 gardener]

i had something with a similar spot patterning on Birch. turned out to be sawfly larvae. looking at the head it looks as if it has eye spots so sawfly would be my guess.

Chris

[Bruce Williams]

Thanks for your help Chris.

I've done some Googling on sawfly larva and think your suggestion is quite a strong possibility. The main defining chartacteristic (of sawfly larva) seems to be the presence of six or more leg pairs on the abdominal segments - apparently caterpillars never have more than five pairs.

Frustratingly I did take some shots that better showed the legs but as they were quite blurred I deleted them all . Lesson learned to keep all pics that might help with identification!

Bruce

[poschiavanus]

Certainly a sawfly larva, unfortunately there are 43 listed as feeding on birch in Britain & Ireland. OK, some are leaf-miners, but it still leaves lots to choose from.

Its always useful to get a shot enabling a count of the number of prolegs, whether a sawfly or a lepidopteran larva. For sawflies it is also useful for getting an idea of the number of 'folds' on each body segment, and the position of any spots and bristles. All of these are a useful aid to someone more expert than me to identify the beasts.

poschiavanus

[wildlifesnapper]

Hi

do you think so ? Looks more like a micro moth larva to me. The head shape doesn't look right for sawfly, and all that silk it's on, I'm sure sawfly larvae don't produce silk like that.
Had a look around UKmoths and there are very similar larvae but I can't pin it to species.

neil

[Bruce Williams]

poschiavanus and Neil - Thank you both for your very informative input.

I guess the lesson I've learned with this one is to take (and keep) pics from several viewpoints whenever possible.

Bruce

[Pudding4brains]

Hi All,

Interesting thread Has me confused too, somehow the black spots seen on the bottom seem to suggest prolegs, but could also just be misleading

Originally Posted by wildlifesnapper

The head shape doesn't look right for sawfly, and all that silk it's on, I'm sure sawfly larvae don't produce silk like that.

Well, I do agree with the head shape remark - looks a bit different than on most other caterpillar-like sawfly larvae, but at the same time there do seem to be various species that spin silk (so that's not conclusive). From what I've found after a short browse on the internet, on Birch there would be at least Neurotoma saltuum for example (which this probably isn't).

With 20mm it's not an extremely early instar anyway - most sawfly larva that I see don't grow beyond some 30mm or so (except for Cimbicidae etc).

I had rounded up some links for caterpillars and lookalikes which didn't help me much in finding out this one, but maybe they're some help for other cases. If any of you people have good links to add it would be much appreciated of course

Cheers, Arp

[serendipity]

I think it is this !

[Bruce Williams]

I think you have it serendipity Anthophila fabriciana. Have done some Googling and found a few more pics.

So it looks like it's a caterpillar after all!


Well done.
Bruce