Caterpillar

After another longish day stuck in front of a computer, I went for a wander down the garden looking for something to blip.

I found strawberries, but no inspiration, until just before returning indoors, when I spotted this caterpillar (and a couple of his mates) on the acer just outside the patio door.

I'm ashamed to admit that though, according to this website, it is "one of the most instantly recognizable caterpillars in the British Isles" and "one of the most commonly sighted caterpillars in gardens where it can sometimes become so numerous to be considered a pest", I had never knowingly seen one before.  It is, in fact, the caterpillar of the Vapourer moth.  The website also gives interesting information about the moths themselves, the female of which is flightless, and looks really odd.

We shall keep an eye on our Acer, which at the moment only has a few caterpillars, and if they look like being overly voracious, we will have to rehome some of them.