Unidentified caterpillars on birch trees

ronx · #1 (**permalink**) 24-09-2010, 01:34 PM

Can anyone ID these large (4cm) cats? they had eaten every leaf nearly on a group of young birches (not so good for a garden designer like me!). I have not seen them before.

triops · #2 (**permalink**) 24-09-2010, 05:07 PM

These are caterpillars of the Buff-tip moth. As you've seen, they live in a group and strip whole branches. A lovely sight and a handsome and beautifully camouflaged adult moth.

bigdave60dog · #3 (**permalink**) 24-09-2010, 05:20 PM

Yeah Buff Tips. Odd moth, Buff tips. You see the caterpillars lots but in my experience only ever see the moths by hatching caterpillars or in light traps.
Must be down to their being camouflaged as fag ends.
Dave

ronx · #4 (**permalink**) 24-09-2010, 09:00 PM

Thanks! See what you mean about the fag ends! The funny thing is that my client went to investigate them later in the day after we first spotted them and they had ALL disappeared. So they must have been ready to pupate and all gone off in that short time. They had certainly done a lot of eating on the young birch trees. Let's hope the trees recover.