2 Caterpillars for ID please

[xSarahx]

Hi

Found these two caterpillars but can’t id them.

The green fluffy one was found walking along the underside of a shed roof, so unsure of larval food plant. The yellow one was in a cocoon that it had made down the side of the garden shed door, and so when I opened the door, it ripped the cocoon as it was attached to the door and the door frame. The caterpillar was still making it’s awesome little cocoon and so it hadn’t pupated yet.

Any help with id would be greatly appreciated.

[Dogghound]

1. Is a Miller Acronicta leporina, pre-pupation they loose most of their hair and become darker in colour, it also explains why it was in your shed.

2. How big was it? Ive never seen one like it.

[xSarahx]

Originally Posted by Dogghound

1. Is a Miller Acronicta leporina, pre-pupation they loose most of their hair and become darker in colour, it also explains why it was in your shed.

2. How big was it? Ive never seen one like it.

2 was about 2cm long. The cocoon was quite distinctive if a pic would be useful to the id (but i would have to go out and take a photo of it first!)

Thanks for the first id, i will go and check it out now!

[Dogghound]

Yes a photo may help, can you get another of the larvae showing its underside and head.

[xSarahx]

Just checked out the miller on ukleps, and i agree. I discounted it because i knew they had white hairs and didnt realise they changed before pupation! Earlier on in the year, we saw only a single adult, but one we had potted laid eggs in the container so i waited until they hatched (on 8th July) and put them on the oak tree about 10m from the shed it was crawling on. I found the caterpillar on 19th August, so could it be on from the batch I released? Is that about the right time scale for it? It would be nice to think that the ones i released survived!

[xSarahx]

just taken a photo of the cocoon, now got to wait for it to upload

I havent got a photo of the underside, and no head-on shots, only one pic showing slightly more of it's head than the other photo if that would help.

[xSarahx]

The cocoon was about 3cm long, and felt fairly solid with a rough texture. Notice how the caterpillar has chewed the wood off in the area in the middle of the cocoon!





Heres another head shot. It doesn't show much more of it, but it's the only other one i have!

[xSarahx]

does anyone have any ideas what it is? Would it definately be a moth caterpillar, and not something like a beetle larvae? although i doubt beetle larvae would make a cocoon like this.

[Lance Morgan]

It looks like a bald Sycamore moth. It may have shed hairs to make cocoon prior to pupation.

[xSarahx]

it looks similar, but there are no white blobs inside the black diamond markings on my specimen, and on ukleps, the body colour looks pale grey underneath the hairs. The face does look similar though.