Friday 16 August 2013

The spider and the snail


I took note of the BBC forecast last night and let the moths and the trap lie. This was prudent as this morning we woke to the patter of rain and there had clearly been more overnight.


The women of the house have been on watch, however. First, my 94-year-old mother-in-law spotted this snail exploring high up on our dining room windows. Closer inspection revealed that it was being inspected - and maybe attacked - by a spider. Do these little creatures have ambitions about such vastly bigger prey? Apologies to passing arachnophobes.


Then, as we entertained cousins to tea, Penny spotted another explorer: this caterpillar on my collar. She caught it just as it made a bid to plunge inside my shirt and so here it is again, on her pearl-tipped finger's top.


I am closeted with my Caterpillar Bible. Update: the sagacious Dave in Comments suggests a sawfly and I'm pleased about that because the nearest I could find in the said Bible was a Pine Sawfly, though I didn't dare commit myself.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Martin,

Your larva looks very much like a sawfly to me.

I have also commented on your conundra back on the post from 8th August.

Regards

Dave

MartinWainwright said...

Thanks very much Dave - have updated. And that's extremely good of you to go back on the blog. I'll hasten to update that one now - and it wasn't exactly an easy lot. Much appreciated!

all warm wishes

M