caterpillar id on my pear tree

[sammyj]

can anyone identify this caterillar nest on my pear tree?

they are small brown caterpillars with black heads and are within a web.

Are they likely to do much damage? The pear tree is only a few years old and I'm worried they might do a lot of damage.




many thanks

sam

[Jonners]

Hi Sam and welcome to WAB
They look to me like they could be some kind of sawfly larvae, but the experts on here will probably be able to tell you exactly.
I believe that they can rapidly get through foliage, but that no long-term damage is generally done. However, I would wait for the specialists. I know when I was a boy, some of our gooseberry bushes were savaged by sawfly larvae, but none of them died as a result. Wasn't very pretty to look at though.

[charlieb]

They're the caterpillars of the Hawthorn Moth, Scythropia crataegella (they also eat other things )

I wouldn't worry too much about the tree - it should recover next year.