Hairy tufted caterpillar for ID please

tovka · #1 (**permalink**) 18-06-2010, 02:00 PM

Sorry photo's not in focus! I found this on my jeans, but I think I must have picked it up from a rhododendron in my garden, so that's where I put it before taking this photo. It's basically black with orange stripes and some yellow tufts. It's about 2cm long. It seems to be happily chomping on the rhodo, so I'm hoping I've got an alternative food source in the garden for it - please suggest one if you can!
Many thanks,

Wildwill94 · #2 (**permalink**) 18-06-2010, 02:59 PM

hi there,
had a little look up in a few books and it looks to be a knot grass moth catapillar.

triops · #3 (**permalink**) 18-06-2010, 03:15 PM

Have another look at tjhe book.It's the Vapourer.

tovka · #4 (**permalink**) 18-06-2010, 03:40 PM

Yes Triops, that's definitely my caterpillar. But thanks to Wildwill94 for your research as well.
I've moved it to a hawthorn tree as my rhododendron's not very big and I can't afford to lose too many leaves to the caterpillar.