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Produce => Wildlife forum => Topic started by: decrepit on June 24, 2008, 12:29:11

Title: hairy caterpillar ID (sorry no photo)
Post by: decrepit on June 24, 2008, 12:29:11
Hi folks - wonder if anyone can help please.

Was at a BBQ at the weekend and left my chair for a few moments - when I went back there was a hairy caterpillar on my chair - have been googling all morning and can't find out what it is.    Its features were -

fawn bristly hairs all over
tufts of yellow short hairs (like spots) running down the top of its back
black tufts that looked like antennae
a black tuft like a little sticky-up tail close to its rear end

(Maybe it is my imagination, but I have had a nasty spotty irritation on my arm since then  :o)

Any clues as to what it was that I saw?
Title: Re: hairy caterpillar ID (sorry no photo)
Post by: norfolklass on June 24, 2008, 12:44:50
hi decrepit
did your caterpillar look like this?
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,35017.0.html
Title: Re: hairy caterpillar ID (sorry no photo)
Post by: decrepit on June 24, 2008, 13:06:39
Hi there!  Gosh that was a quick reply  ;D

Pretty close, but he wasn't so dark - definitely light fawn hair all over (quite long but not tufted) with yellow tufts and his black antennae and 'tail'.

(My Dad called all hairy caterpillars 'hairy oobits').