Puss Moth Caterpillars

[hedgehugger]

I have spotted at least 6 of these funky fellows on a salix (willow) tree in the garden.

Through internet searching I've ID'd them.
Will they chrysalise (sp?) on the same tree? and if so, how long roughly will it be before they do so?
Shall keep my eye on them anyway

[hedgehugger]

Well, the 6 caterpillars have eaten all the leaves, bar about 7 lol and gone on their merry caterpillar way, there were 3 left this morning and now there are none.

[k4t3]

Lucky old you! I love these caterpillars, they were the staple of my younger collecting days . They will have fed themselves up and spun themselves into a cocoon of silk and chewed up bark to pupate and overwinter, before hatching as the most gorgeous, fluffy moths next May/June time.

I used to be able to find the eggs and raise the caterpillars in captivity- feeding on willow or sallow branches in a vase of water (top plugged thoroughly or they descended and drowned themselves ), the only time I knew them to employ the formic acid response was to try and burn their way out of the mesh cover on the containers when about to pupate!
I used to put corrugated cardboard in the containers to emulate the bark and they would chew that up and pupate within that- I raised many very successfully like that......of course a few would manage to escape, and pupate behind the posters on the wall, using the blown vinyl wallpaper......but still emerged successfully the next spring!

[Harry Eales]

I've about 150 larvae of the Puss Moth in 14 large cages, all the result of one female laying a large batch of eggs in a cardboard box she was kept in overnight. They emerged over several days, some are already massive. The only problem with them is keeping up with the food supply.

My branch loppers have just about given up the ghost so it's back to the bow saw and another half tree to saw down before breakfast. It must be thirty years since I bred anything like that number of Puss Moth. It's great fun but very labour intensive cleaning and steralising all the cages twice a day. Sunday is Car Boot raiding day, boxes of cork table mats is what I'll be after, the larvae love making cocoons on its surface.

Harry

[hedgehugger]

Certainly sound like hungry caterpillars

My lot ate the small willow and trundled off, but I did find one on a tree with similar leaves, but can't remember for the life of me what it's called. The caterpillar there munched his way through a fair few branchfuls and when last spotted was about the size of my index finger! He/She has now gone too. Hopefully to'do it's thing' rather than as a stomach filler