Sense, Sensibility - and a Caterpillar

 My current project, given the worsening weather and darker mornings which limit the moth trap's appeal, is trying to identify the humble caterpillar which gloriously opens the new film version of Sense and Sensibility. It is a high honour for a humble creature and one made all the better by the amount of comment which it has prompted, such as this intro from a piece in the Economist.

The little scene illustrates the wild, impulsive and curious nature of Marianne Dashwood's 'sensibility' as opposed to her sister Elinor's sound 'sense'. In days gone by, the girl would more likely have been shown delighting in a rabbit's bobtail or a soaring hawk. Hooray that caterpillars are having their day in the sunshine! The task now is to find out, in the current absence of an online clip which actually shows the little chap, what he or she is. 

And it's only a few months since a Box-tree Moth, dreaded destroyer of neat hedges, made an anachronistic appearance in another Jane Austen film, as noted by eagle-eyed fellow-moth enthusiast Dave Morris here.  Meanwhile, I have a humbler domestic ID task with these two caterpillars below, which I rescued from a puddle in our rain-soaked garden.

I've sent a guess to iRecord which has a useful system of suggesting something more likely. In due course, I may get an expert ID but if not, it will not be the end of the world. Telling this sort of caterpillar apart is a terrible way of passing the time.  Ditto with the very worn moth below, and with worn adults generally. Their markings can fade and their wings get torn with a thoroughness which can ultimately make certainty impossible. 

I am 99 percent sure that this is a Sallow and my unfailing expert Dave Wilton on Upper Thames Moths concurs; but I feature it just because of the marvellous range of suggestions from the Bug ID on my iPhone. I do not really like to poke fun at this facility because it has often been a tremendous help. But perhaps it is good to highlight the limitations of AI at a time when the typically OTT world of journalism and social media is convinced that the robots are going to wipe us out. 

So here's the list.  All wrong, some wildly so: Dun-bar, Orange Swift, Acanalonia bivittata, the two-striped planthopper, Corn earworm (US-speak), Canary-shouldered Thorn, Forest semilooper (endemic to NZ), White-speck and Twin-spotted Quaker. Fiddlesticks!

Turning to other arrivals: Behold a Silver Y, a Chestnut, a Turnip, a Feathered Thorn, a couple of Autumnal/November/Winter moths and a Centre-barred Sallow, the last bringing a scrap of cheerful colour as the year winds down.