21 Nov 2014 TRICKY CUSTOMERS

It was all the more gratifying to receive an email from Don-herbison Evans fully identifying a caterpillar with a most striking appearance I filmed recently at night. It was perhaps 6 cm long, with brown tufts on its light grey back and very long hairs. It had blue dots on its sides. I film many caterpillars, mostly at night. They are intriguing creatures, but notoriously more difficult to identify from a video frame than the adult moth or butterfly. If Peter Hendry offers an identification of a caterpillar it is usually only to a moth family. Don is an expert on lepidoptera and tends to request that I send him the caterpillar rather than a video frame of it. When experts request live specimens I have to point out that I carry camera and tripod and not collecting paraphernalia.