All about Insects 2020

WendyBartter said:

Sounds as if you've got the larvae well sorted, look forward to more pics as they grow

Hi jps, how are the larvae doing?... just heard back from expert who says 'not sawfly' but can't ID until bigger!

Hi Wendy, sorry I haven't got back sooner, life has been a bit mad!  I've still been looking after my little friends though, and they are now a bit bigger.  I am sure I only see four prolegs so I think your expert is on the money!

So here we are, I can get more pics but this one might be enough (I'm just useless with photos - they looked like a comedy sequence of missed or obscured bits!)  The head is missing from this one but their heads are now brown rather than black.

Thanks for pic, may well be Cabbage Moth caterpillar but hard to be certain yet ... are they still going after flower buds? Seems to be a preference of theirs!

Hi no, I thought they would but they are mainly eating grass, and a bit of dandelion leaf. Hoping we can get an ID so I know what to give them!

Hi no, I thought they would but they are mainly eating grass, and a bit of dandelion leaf. Hoping we can get an ID so I know what to give them!

Try them on a bit of cabbage leaf! They are polyphagous so any low growing green plants will do!

www.wildlifeinsight.com/.../cabbage-moth-mamestr ... just in case they are CM caterpillars, this is a great site to go to for all sorts of info & pics ... this is run by the guy I sent your pic to, as soon as you get a brilliant clear pic I'll see if he can ID definitively!

Very helpful info there, thanks Wendy! I was leaning a bit towards yellow underwing (one of the varieties) but the first instar pics on wildlifeinsight look a dead cert for CM.

I'll get some more pics soon to see if he can ID them, thanks for everything so far!

These look really clear on my phone but less so on the computer, hope they are clear enough...