One for Buzzy

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One for Buzzy
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jamanda
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 35057
Location: Devon

Posted: Sun Aug 06, 17 3:50 pm Post subject: One for Buzzy
What do you think this is Buzzy? A tussock moth? www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1410077415696124&id=287233014647242

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Sun Aug 06, 17 4:26 pm Post subject:
Here's the still pic. There's a bit of video if you follow the link...

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46238
Location: yes

Posted: Sun Aug 06, 17 6:22 pm Post subject:
ace colours for dancing tartan

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35935
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Sun Aug 06, 17 8:12 pm Post subject:
It's beautiful!

buzzy

Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Posts: 3708
Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds

Posted: Sun Aug 06, 17 8:48 pm Post subject:
The Tussocks don't have the Denis Healey eyebrows ( ), and yours doesn't have the black rings round each body segment that Tussocks have. This is a Vapourer (Orgyia antiqua) caterpillar, though what antique orgies have to do with things I have no idea! Same family as the Tussock moths which accounts for the similarity. Very pretty caterpillars. Henry

buzzy

Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Posts: 3708
Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds

Posted: Sun Aug 06, 17 8:55 pm Post subject:
Just looked in the book and it says this moth family is called the Tussocks because of the tufts of hair in the back of the larvae. I'd have called them the Shaving Brushes if I'd been given the choice. Henry

jamanda
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 35057
Location: Devon

Posted: Sun Aug 06, 17 9:13 pm Post subject:
Thanks Buzzy. It seems there are a number of common names, so best to stick to the Latin. For those who may be interested...this moth species has day flying males, but the females are flightless and give out a shed load of pheromones. Neither gender of adult feed so this is indeed a very hungry caterpillar.

buzzy

Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Posts: 3708
Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds

Posted: Sun Aug 06, 17 10:11 pm Post subject:

Well, technically yours is a (small t) tussock moth because it is of the family of Tussock moths (Lymantriidae), but this includes the Dark Tussock, the Pale Tussock, the Reed Tussock, the Brown Tail, the Yellow Tail, the White Satin, the Black V, the Black Arches, the Gipsy, the Scarce Vapourer and the Vapourer. All the larvae are hairy, and the hairs are often irritant (especially in the Brown Tail) so should be handled with care if at all.

Henry

jamanda
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 35057
Location: Devon

Posted: Sun Aug 06, 17 10:46 pm Post subject:
Thank you. Now how about this thing?

jamanda
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 35057
Location: Devon

Posted: Sun Aug 06, 17 10:48 pm Post subject:
I can't even place that in a phlyum!

buzzy

Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Posts: 3708
Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds

Posted: Sun Aug 06, 17 10:57 pm Post subject:
Looks as if it's on a piece of seaweed, in which case I think it's an early stage of Goose Barnacle. Don't know enough about them to give a species name, I'm afraid. Henry

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15987

Posted: Mon Aug 07, 17 7:26 am Post subject:
Is it the brown tail that can infest hawthorn and completely denude the plant? We sometimes have outbreaks of it round here.

buzzy

Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Posts: 3708
Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds

Posted: Mon Aug 07, 17 7:44 am Post subject:

Mistress Rose wrote:

Is it the brown tail that can infest hawthorn and completely denude the plant? We sometimes have outbreaks of it round here.

I'm fairly sure that's the one. Don't get too near big infestations - if you happen to be sensitive (and sometimes even if you are not) it can be really nasty. Or so I read. I was looking at a big cluster a few weeks ago and I'm still here.

Henry

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15987

Posted: Tue Jan 16, 18 7:35 am Post subject:
Another one for you Buzzy, but not an insect. Yesterday we saw a greater spotted woodpecker on our nut feeder. Strange as it is nowhere near any woods, nearest about 1/2 mile or more away.

sgt.colon

Joined: 27 Jul 2009
Posts: 7380
Location: Just south of north.

Posted: Tue Jan 16, 18 10:52 am Post subject:
MR, are those the red and black ones? If so we had one on our nuts a few years ago and we have no woodland anywhere near us.

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