Caterpillars

[Beekeeper]

Years ago, if fact 50 years ago or so there was a very large old hollow Oak tree just down the road from my house.
Hornets used to come back to the tree to nest year in year out, there was also some sort of moth that used the same tree for laying its eggs.

At a certain time of year caterpillars used to emerge, everyone was under the impression that they were the offspring of a Hawk Moth of some sort but no-one really knew.
If i remember correctly they had no covering of hair at all, were a creamy colour with yellow or red/ orange spots along their sides, cant remember for sure which but they were huge, around 60 millimetres in length possibly longer, does anyone have any idea as to what they could have been.

Sadly the local council cut the tree down as it was deemed unsafe so that was the end of that.

BK

[skinidin]

I wondered if they might have been Goat Moth larvae which live inside trees for up to 5 years. They have a strange 'goaty' smell apparently!

I believe they are quite uncommon these days.

[Beekeeper]

skinidin, many thanks for taking the time to reply, I have looked at a net picture of the larve of the Goat Moth and it doesn't seem at all similar to the ones i remember, i did ask my brother if he had better recollections of the caterpillar than i did and the mental picture we each have is rather different, the one thing we did agree on was the size which was around 60-75 mm in length (3 inches) I thought it was cream and my brother thought it was yelow, oh well i suppose we are both getting a bit old now to have clear memories of some things.

Neither of us have ever seen any more of these larve anywhere so maybe they are now another species extinct.

I never did see the adult insect so presumably it only emerged from hiding at night as other moths do.

BK