Caterpillar Photography

Those are really clear photos of Box Tree Moth cats about to get well and truly stuck into munching

Cin J

In reply to Germain:

Sorry about the late reply. Thanks for the compliment on the clarity. The box tree Catterpillers were on a bush and they were quiet visible which made it easy to  get some clear photos of them. They Were well camaflauged though so you wouldn’t of known they were there unless you looked Closely.  I forgot to add a film I did of one of them. It’s only a short one though. It looks like its trying to get to the other leaf to munch.

In reply to Germain:

Interestingly its an introduced Species and isn’t native to the UK. There was lots of them on the bush. Since there was lots of them I think I might see lots of Box tree Moths in my local area if they do successfully turn into Box Tree Moths. 

It's an invasive Alien species and a significant pest - at the moment not much seems to eat them. It is an attractive moth

Cin J

In reply to Germain:

If I manage to get any photos of the Moths next month il send them on Butterflys and Moths. iv never seen one before so even though it’s been introduced and is an invasive species it will still be interesting to see one of them. But I think the transformation of Caterpiller to Butterfly or moth in Butterflys and Moths is very interesting

They were only on that one bush. and it’s just outside a old tree that has a fence around it. I didn’t even know they were there. I’ve taken photos of  caterpillars before since I had Cabbage whites in the garden cause I had a food plant called nasturtium but I think these close ups are probably my favourite out of all the photos That Iv taken of Catterpillers before.

Are these the guys that eat box hedge? (Certainly looks like them.)

In reply to Dave - CH:

Yes these are the ones

In reply to Zo Clark:

Scary.

They're very pretty, but...

They arrived in Switzerland some years ago via the airport in Basel (carried in plants). Eat everything (on their restricted menu) in their path.

Huge commercial impact (although the one company the has a biological treatment has done well out of it (which is nice, because they're good guys)). And as another Community member pointed out last time I saw these little guys discussed, they're wiping out wild box.

In our old place, where the nights were warmer, I would spend approximately 45 hours each summer spraying (to protect box). Colder nights here are helpful, but still...

I like the idea of caterpillar photography though.

Pretty much the only thing I could possible take a photo of without it being blurred.

That, and rocks.

:-)