Euonymus caterpillar

[Tinka]

Hello.
Can these be found in the UK?
I have spent hours on the net trying to identify the caterpillars I have on my front hedge! There is a huge silky web and hundreds of these caterpillars. They chomp away at the leaves and then all huddle together in a mound and keep still, like they are warming each other or something.
They are a cream colour with each segment having a pair of black spots. these spots form 2 parallel lines down the length of the caterpillar.
I have taken lots of photos with my Blackberry so if I can work out how to put them on here I will, but having googled myself to death they really are the spitting image of the Euonymus caterpillar.
I live in Devon.
Hopefully it will appear below!

[GuyF]

Hi and welcome to the site!
These are the larvae of one of the small ermine moths, the European relatives of the Euonymus caterpillar. There are a few similar species which are often host-plant specific, so if you can identify the shrub they're on you should be able to tell what they are. I'm not very good with plants but those look quite like Spindle leaves, which would make the caterpillars Spindle Ermine, see here - Spindle Ermine Yponomeuta cagnagella - UKMoths.

Guy

[Tinka]

Thank you very much!
Firstly I was worried the house would be overrun with Sawfly, then thinking I had found some rare moth which means someone from the natural history museum would be down here with a bucket and a bio-suit!
But it turns out they are quite common. Not a lover of hairy moths, but as long as they hatch out and clear off I think we will be ok.
My children are fascinated by them.

[Tinka]

They are not very clever are they?
Made long silken threads to the ground, which they all queue up to use, right down into a waiting group of ants who swarm all over them!
I have just got a twig, broken the thread and looped it right back up to the top of the bush, where no doubt they started their long journey from! haha! I ended up cutting off 5 that were already lost to the ants, but must have saved about 200 that were merrily on their way down the thread!

[Tinka]

Oh no, they are doing it again! WHY??? The ants are just swarming all over them the minute they touch the ground! Death wish, it is horrible too, I don't want my kids to witness slow caterpillar death! I have just fixed another two threads back up the hedge and each one must have had a hundred on marching down to their doom! I can't sit there all day saving them!

[STYRBJORN]

Get your own larvae on the case. Tell them the silly caterpiggles need help to get away from the ants!

[Tinka]

They are at school sadly, maybe a blow torch would give the ants something else to think about! Ha ha

I have found another way to occupy the ants. I made them a jam sandwich! lol

[STYRBJORN]

I can claim no special expertise here, but the larvae (moth type) may be seeking places to pupate. It's very early but the warm weather messes up biological clocks. Tempting the ants away seems a good idea, letting the caterpiggles disperse.

Keep us posted!

Ric