What are these caterpillars?

[commonhawker]

Hi,

Could anyone tell me what these caterpillars are from our back garden ... the two smaller ones were in amongst a honeysuckle, and a buddleia was nearby if that helps. There was also what I'm pretty sure was a Buff Ermine caterpillar with them.

The closest I can get to one of them is a Mullein, but most of the pictures don't seem quite right to me ... maybe just a different colour variation?



Thanks,

[pammosley]

Hi commonhawker & welcome to WAB. I`ve had a look in my books but can`t find exact matches. I see why you are considering Mullein Moth for the one. I`m sure someone will be along shortly

[Hedera]

No. 2 certainly looks like a Mullein, they pupate underground so it was on its way!
No. 3 the nearest I can get is a swallow prominent, but not sure.

[poschiavanus]

#2 looks like a sawfly: note that its got plenty of prolegs and a single prominent eye. Seems far too late for a Mullein.

[poschiavanus]

I'm inclined to think that #2 is the larva of the Honeysuckle Sawfly Zaraea fasciata.

Certainly, what is visible in the photo agrees with the description in Lorenz and Kraus (7 annuli, 3 sets of black spots per segment creating 5 long rows along the abdomen, black head with short setae, thoracic legs with 5 segments, on the substigmal lobes forming a black line with 11 yellow flecks below it). Foodplant obviously fits too.

A more detailed shot of the head would help (different families of sawflies have different kinds of antennae as larvae), but probably difficult to do.

[commonhawker]

Hi all,

Thanks for your postings so far, the welcome and the news that I have to add sawflies to my repertoire aswell from now on

Until now I didn't realise they could be so similar. Unfortunately, I didn't get a better shot of the head on #2 ... but the description sounds like it fits the bill. I'll keep an eye out for the number of prolegs in future.

Also the Swallow Prominent looks possible on #3, I'll do a bit more looking around also.

[xSarahx]

i think 3 is a bright line brown eye caterpillar

[commonhawker]

Bright line brown eye looks like a good call to me ... pulled it up on ukleps.org and looks like a spitting image Thanks for your help.