The ultimate garden punk-rocker

Sometimes wildlife entertains you; sometimes it thrills you; sometimes it just makes you chuckle.

Such was my reaction on seeing this little fella walking across the path while visiting RSPB Pulborough Brooks yesterday. One can see why evolution equipped him (or her) with long bristles all over, rendering him somewhat unpalatable to any hungry bird or mouse (or a painful mistake). But why was it then necessary to give him a sunshine-yellow  mohican on his back, a comedy red tail, and colour him lime-green? It must be one of Mother Nature's little jokes.

And even though I didn't find him in a garden, I felt he was worth sharing because this is the caterpillar of the Pale Tussock, which is a relatively widespread moth of even towns and cities.

The adults turn up quite regularly in the trap in my little suburban garden. They are quite plain, although they do sport cute fluffy leg warmers. They fly in early summer, and the females lay their eggs on all sorts of deciduous trees.

The caterpillar grows slowly, and then just about now in October heads off to pupate among some fallen leaves, another of the great wildlife gardening excuses for not raking or vacuum-cleaning them up. As the caterpillars wobble along, they bend and reveal black gaps in between each lime segment, like you can see here.

Now I have never seen the caterpillar in my garden (much as I'd like to) but there's no reason why you shouldn't stumble across this little attention seeker in yours (although, sorry, it is again not a Scottish moth, yet).

So good luck, and even if this punk rocker doesn't come swaggering your way, I hope something comes along in your garden to make you chuckle this weekend. And if it does, we want to hear about it!