5th June

Woolpitch Wood, Trellech

Large Caterpillar

Bit of a late posting for this number but it's taken me a while to make a suggestion for this larvae.
The evening itself was a bit of an experiment at Woolpitch in that I tried a light-trap in an secluded, enclosed part of the wood just as an interesting exercise just to see what might be lurking there.
This area has been shut down for a while in that things have become overgrown in the tree canopy so not allowing a great deal of light to filter down through.
The trap resulted in low numbers overall but Clouded Border (7) and Pale Tussock (11) were seemingly comfortable with the enclosed situation.
An Satin Beauty macro in a broadleaved wood threw me out for a while but I now remember conifers adorn the far end, however a late Cream Wave was a nice satisfactory contribution to an otherwise quiet night.

There was another surprise to end the evening when I picked up on a odd shape hanging from the underneath of a sapling Ash tree via a headtorch scan of the surrounding understory vegetation.
Quite a plump caterpillar at it's latter stages was hanging motionless near the upper part of this Ash.
After spending quite of time searching, I now think it's a Copper Underwing at it's late stage.
To separate from Svenson's Copper Underwing from Copper Underwing I noticed Copper Underwing has a green, more pointed 'tail tip', where Svenson's has a reddish tip. Another feature is the absence of the central pale line towards the final two segments of the caterpillar on approach to the head which helps separates the two species also I think.
Larvae I've just found out, feed on Oak, Bramble, Honeysuckle, Wild Privet and yes, Ash.