Our caterpillar (called lettuce :-) )

[capobay]

Hi, we found a caterpillar 2 days ago on a tree, think it might have been an oak tree or something similar. The caterpillar was about an inch long and hairy.

The caterpillar looked a bit like a vapourer moth caterpillar like I have seen in these forums and found ourselves before with 1 black spike on her back and white markings. My children enjoy insects so we named him/her Lettuce and we have had her in a plastic box with some damp tissue paper and leaves and a stick from the tree.

S/he was very lively and seemed to enjoy scraping off wood shavings from the stick quite a lot and burrowing through them. This morning we can't see Lettuce but there is a caterpillar-sized pile of woodshaings that looks stuck in the middle of the stick and leaves that looks suspiciously like Lettuce has created some kind of pupa.

I can't see anything about wood shavings with regards to vapourer moths so could someone who knows about these things let us know what Lettuce might be as we are all very interested in his/her development and well-being

Thank you very much!
CapoBay and Family

[charlieb]

Any chance of a photo? Or even a drawing?

The Vapourer eats leaves (not bark) and pupates inside a silken cocoon (see http://www.ukleps.org/Proms/2026s.jpg) - sounds like you might have something else

[JRsbugs]

This is a little bit eerie, I took a pic of a caterpillar yesterday on an Iris leaf. Later in the day it had a smaller 'caterpillar' next to it, I hadn't realised what it was until I looked today and saw the small one still there but the bigger one had gone. On closer inspection the smaller one was the shed skin, and for some strange reason I thought it was the Vapour Moth but I've never seen one.

I had recently been looking through some caterpillars on the ukleps site, that one must have stuck! It has two yellow tufts after shedding the skin, none before, was about 9-10mm long so has some growing to do yet.

If you have a pupa it might need different conditions, such as moist air or soil, they can dry out and the moth may not be able to emerge successfully.

Janet

[JRsbugs]

Now I feel really stupid , I realised I had a small caterpillar elsewhere in the garden which was identified as a Vapourer Moth! It was a lot smaller though!