Mullein caterpillar - Shargacucullia verbasci
Shredded. Turned into a stump of white dust. That's one of my garden verbascum's, thanks to a visit from the mullein moth (Shargacucullia verbasci) caterpillar.
Here, you can see the beautifully marked caterpillars at work, absolutely destroying a vigorous plant.
They also love buddleias.
Their big juicy bodies are food for the parasitic ichneumon wasp (phion luteus).
The caterpillars make silk cocoons and overwinter in the soil.
3 comments:
Ouch. Are you going to get wasps? Perhaps chickens, instead.
Wow, that's some herbivore. Are there any native birds that like them?
I think that the coloration of the caterpillars dissuades birds, just as the tiger striped caterpillars if the cinnabar moth act as a deterrent to hungry birds - including hens!
Rob
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