On our patio sits a pot and in the pot grows a small Willow tree. On one of the branches a caterpillar clings on motionless blending in perfectly with the small stems on the tree. Some days it remained still and others it would feed on the leaves. Then one day it had disappeared.
Looking at the image you would think this was easy to spot but the markings on this caterpillar made it an incredibly effective camouflage, each day we would check it's progress and it always took a few minutes to locate the caterpillar. It shared the tree with a couple of vapourer moth caterpillars so we did wonder if there would be enough leaves to support it. But it was fine and eventually it had moved off to no doubt pupate and complete it's lifecycle at some point this year.
Best viewed large.
Many thanks for the votes and comments on the previous upload of the Bloody Nosed Beetle and especially to Andro (eyelevelphotographyuk), Graham (Ericsamson) and Howard (hrsimages) for your User Awards, so very much appreciated.




Tags: Summer
Insects
Morning
Wildlife
Nature
Macro
Moth
England
Close-up
Natural
Habitat
Botanical
Garden
Insect
Caterpillar
Lepidoptera
Larva
Moths
Somerset
Fauna
Larvae
August
European
Britain
Brown
Resting
Natural light
Back garden
Axbridge
Entomology
Detailed
Invertebrate
Magnify
Wildlife and nature
Invertebrates
No-one
Green background
Poplar Hawk-moth
Laothoe populi
Arthropoda
Sphingidae
Habitats
(Linnaeus 1758)
(69.003)
Laothoe
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