[jeff]

What will these little fella's grow into?

[harry eales]

Hello Jeff,
I can't say I've seen anything like these in the north-east of England. It would help if you could say where and when the picture was taken and on what plant the web was found on. This may help to narrow down the field somewhat.

Another problem is that very young larvae can differ considerably from fully grown larvae and it is usually the fully grown ones that are illustrated in books on identification.

There are several 'macro' moth species that utilise webs in the early stages of larval developement, amongst these are: Brown-tail, Yellow-tail, Pale Eggar and several more.

Any clue's would help.

Harry Eales.

[jeff]

Harry,

It was taken yesterday at Keyhaven Marshes, not to sure what the plant was though, there were lots of gorse bushes about, could have been it that, but then again, it might have been something else, can't say i noticed which.

I've attached another picture, which has a couple of twigs and buds in it? That may help??

But you think maybe some sort of micro moth?

Jeff

[harry eales]

Jeff,
Your second photo seems to be the same as the first. I would think it unlikely that the larvae are of 'micro' moths they are very colourful and hairy. Most, but not all micro moth larvae are not hairy at all. I think they are definately macro's, but still stumped as to what they are. I can't say I've ever come across webs like that on Gorse but whatever species they are, they may not occur in my area, so I am unlikely to have seen them.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

Harry Eales.

[SleepyLizard]

Originally Posted by jeff

What will these little fella's grow into?

Brown-tail Moth (Euproctis chrysorrhoea)

http://cgi.ukmoths.force9.co.uk/show.php?id=2747

http://www.leps.it/indexjs.htm?Speci...EuproChrys.htm

I won't tell you how long I've spent trying to figure that out :-)

Alan

[Angus T]

That twig is not gorse.
Looking through Porter, Brown-tail seems likely.

[harry eales]

Originally Posted by SleepyLizard

Brown-tail Moth (Euproctis chrysorrhoea)

http://www.leps.it/indexjs.htm?Speci...EuproChrys.htm

I won't tell you how long I've spent trying to figure that out :-)

Alan

Looks like you nailed it down Alan, I don't get it up here, but I'm glad it was one of the possibilities I suggested.

Harry Eales.

[SleepyLizard]

Originally Posted by harry eales

Looks like you nailed it down Alan,

I started looking last night. Kept missing it in my caterpillar book. In desperation I went to google and entered (caterpillar "two red dots"} which brough up loads of references to Brown tails :-)

Alan

[jeff]

Originally Posted by SleepyLizard

I started looking last night. Kept missing it in my caterpillar book. In desperation I went to google and entered (caterpillar "two red dots"} which brough up loads of references to Brown tails :-)

Alan

Harry,

oops sorry, meant to type macro, but fingers not doing as the brain tells them.

SleepyLizard,

Thanks, good old google eh! thanks for the links as well, i even know what it looks like now, you've saved me hours of searching :-) i wont ask how long you searched for ;-)

Thanks to everyone else as well.