Caterpillar ID please 27/05/04

[CJW]

Took this photo at lunchtime today. My initial thoughts were that it was a Fox Moth, but am now having doubts. It was about 2½" long. Any thoughts?

[harry eales]

Took this photo at lunchtime today. My initial thoughts were that it was a Fox Moth, but am now having doubts. It was about 2½" long. Any thoughts?

Hi Chris,
It's a fully grown Garden Tiger caterpiller. Fox Moth are in either late pupal state or emerging at present, and they don't have those long white hairs or white spots. There is a similar thread on this caterpillar in this section of BF.

Harry

PS See Larvae on a reed dated 15.5.04.

[CJW]

Thanks Harry.

[SleepyLizard]

Hi Chris - I appreciate you are not into keeping things captive, however, the garden tiger which I recently reared, emerged a couple of days ago and it gave me some great photo opps. It has since been released close to where I found it. Here's a link if anyone wants to see it.

http://web.onetel.net.uk/~haggis63/Arctia-caja.html

[Andrew S]

Nice pics, SleepyLizard!