Help with caterpillar ID (1 Viewer)

400mark · Jun 17, 2006

I found this caterpillar in my garden today, it is small, about 1cm long but is quite distinctive, with horn like tufts on it's head & orange spots on the body.
I have attached a poor photo of it, but hopefully it will be enough for someone to help with it's identity.

Surreybirder · Jun 17, 2006

I think it's the vapourer
Ken

400mark · Jun 17, 2006

Thanks Ken, it certainly looks similar, I guess it has quite a bit of growing to do.

I will offer it different leaves to try & find out the food plant, hopefully I will be able to rear it.

Surreybirder · Jun 17, 2006

Hawthorn if you have it.
Ken

400mark · Jun 17, 2006

There are no Hawthorn bushes in the garden so it must have been on some other deciduous bush.

It hasn't touched any of the leaves so far, but perhaps it only feeds at night?

harry eales · Jun 17, 2006

400mark said:
There are no Hawthorn bushes in the garden so it must have been on some other deciduous bush.

It hasn't touched any of the leaves so far, but perhaps it only feeds at night?

I agree it's a Vapourer. They will eat a large number of of plants from Calluna to Sallow. Leave half a dozen different leaves from your garden in a box with the larva and see which one it selects. If it touches none of them try another half dozen.

Harry

400mark · Jun 17, 2006

Thanks Harry.
I have given it a selection of leaves & will see if it has touched any in the morning. If it hasn't eaten them I will try some other varieties of leaves but I'll let it go if I can't find the food plant.

Surreybirder · Jun 18, 2006

I may be wrong but I seem to remember that mine liked bramble leaves, too.
Ken

Gary Francis · Jun 18, 2006

Surreybirder said:
I may be wrong but I seem to remember that mine liked bramble leaves, too.
Ken

Overwintered some vapourer eggs from last year and just finished hatching >100 pupae. We experimented with different foodplants and found they preferred sloe - they would eat birch, hawthorn and bramble but only when sloe wasn't available (actually started them on birch).

Had a lot of fun with the adults and it was a great education for the kids... It's too early for wild adults and so we released batches of our males (dayfliers) up to 1/4 mile downwind from the house and then put the flightless females outside. Amazing to see the males winging their way back home as they followed the females' pheremone plume. Every female attracted at least one male, and we know there were no wild males about because none came in (over a two day period) until we started releasing ours. How can these little moths accurately follow a weak "smell" over such a distance!? Mind-boggling, how does a brain the size of a pinhead do that? The kids (and me) were facinated by it.

Incidentally, anyone know of a good way of marking moths/butterflies for ID purposes? We tried snopake, paint and food dye but none was satisfactory (stuck wings together or just ran off the scales).
Gary

Surreybirder · Jun 18, 2006

Gary Francis said:
Overwintered some vapourer eggs from last year and just finished hatching >100 pupae. We experimented with different foodplants and found they preferred sloe - they would eat birch, hawthorn and bramble but only when sloe wasn't available (actually started them on birch).

Had a lot of fun with the adults and it was a great education for the kids... It's too early for wild adults and so we released batches of our males (dayfliers) up to 1/4 mile downwind from the house and then put the flightless females outside. Amazing to see the males winging their way back home as they followed the females' pheremone plume. Every female attracted at least one male, and we know there were no wild males about because none came in (over a two day period) until we started releasing ours. How can these little moths accurately follow a weak "smell" over such a distance!? Mind-boggling, how does a brain the size of a pinhead do that? The kids (and me) were facinated by it.

Incidentally, anyone know of a good way of marking moths/butterflies for ID purposes? We tried snopake, paint and food dye but none was satisfactory (stuck wings together or just ran off the scales).
Gary

Amazing stuff, Gary. I only reared one larva which turned out to be a male, so no assembling.
I have heard of people using pens with indelible ink to mark spots on moths wings but I've never tried it.
Ken

Gary Francis · Jun 18, 2006

Surreybirder said:
Amazing stuff, Gary. I only reared one larva which turned out to be a male, so no assembling.
I have heard of people using pens with indelible ink to mark spots on moths wings but I've never tried it.
Ken

The one thing we didnt try was marker pens - next time I'll give that a go. Thanks for input.
Gary

Brian Stone · Jun 19, 2006

Mine is eating Victoria Plum leaves (its where it was found).

400mark · Jun 19, 2006

I tried bramble and a few other leaves but the caterpillar didn't touch any of them so I let it go.

Hopefully I'll see some adult vapourers later in the year.

Surreybirder · Jun 19, 2006

It may be about to cast its skin. I noticed that mine didn't eat all the time. It probably has a better chance of survival as your 'pet' than in the wild.
Ken

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