Acronicta aceris
Recently I was sat in the park on a sunny day having a picnic under a young sycamore tree, you can read about that in my post Picnic and leaves. When I came to leave the park I had a little stowaway on my picnic bag, a sycamore moth. I carried it back to a tree so it could continue its journey.
The sycamore (Acronicta aceris) is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is distributed through most of Europe, from central England south to Morocco. To the east it is found from the Near East and Middle East to West Asia.
The extraordinary larva is very distinctive, thickly covered with very long yellow and orange hairs with white spots outlined in black along the back. It feeds on various maples and also on common horse-chestnut, large-leaved lime, mulberry and pedunculate oak. The species overwinters as a pupa. Contrary to its bright colours, it is not poisonous, but may cause skin irritation if handled excessively.
Inspiration
Inspired by its markings, bright colours and spiky hairs I created a piece of digital art using the photographs I had taken of it.
For the body of this strange creature I duplicated and layered the image of the caterpillar, flipping and turning the layers until this yellow and red form was created.
