It’s hard to imagine given today’s wind and rain, but yesterday was a glorious day at Dove Stone and I took the opportunity (whilst litter picking!) to take some photos of the wildlife along the side of Yeoman Hey. I specifically wanted to find some amazing little caterpillars that I’d seen the week before– black and orange striped ones that were feeding on Ragwort plants. They are in fact the larvae of the stunning-looking black and red Cinnabar moth which lays its eggs on Ragwort, and the larvae themselves are pretty stunning too! I hadn’t noticed until I looked at the close-up photo that they have long fine hairs on them too! And on the yellow background of the Ragwort the larvae look pretty amazing.
Something else that I saw that I was pretty excited about was an Antler moth – the first one I’d seen in the flesh! It was also on a Ragwort plant and is pretty amazing-looking too – it gets its name from the white mark on its wing that looks like a stag’s antler. It’s a bit like looking at Indian’s Head rocks above Chew Brook: suddenly you can see the shape that gives it its name!
In fact there were lots of insects out yesterday taking advantage of the weather, like Small Tortoiseshell, Large Skipper, Small Skipper and Gatekeeper butterflies, and lots of other flying things that I’ve yet to identify! So much to learn, so much to see. And yes, I agree with the person who said this yesterday as I was showing them the Cinnabar caterpillars – it IS amazing what you see when you stop and look!