Caterpillars: Lackey Moth

This is the very colourful caterpillar of the lackey moth (Malacosoma neustria), ringelrups in Dutch.

It is found across Europe, Asia and North Africa, most often along the edges of woodland and hedgerows, and in bushy grassland and orchards. In decline in large parts of Europe, it is doing fairly well in The Netherlands.

Its caterpillar is about 60mm (2.4") long, and one of the most spectacular ones in The Netherlands:

^{Olympus Stylus 1s, 42mm, ISO200, f8, 1/50s}

The moth is rather less colourful:

^{Photo by Algirdas, from WikiMedia Commons, under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license}

Thanks for watching!

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