Comments

  1. anuran says

    A remarkably efficient machine for turning leaves into frass and caterpillar.

  2. JohnnieCanuck says

    According to the link, this is a sawfly larva. The term caterpillar apparently only applies to the larvae of Lepidoptera whereas sawflies are Hymenoptera.

  3. chigau (違う) says

    I have similar critters doing my currants every year.
    If I could, I would kill them all.

  4. anuran says

    @5 chigau
    That’s what I don’t like about gardening. You spend most of your time killing things.
    (Some time back I did a “How to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse” reality check. The basic advice was “Don’t think like a Lantern-Jawed Hero (TM). This isn’t war. It’s an integrated pest management problem. Think like a farmer. They spend most of their time killing things with ruthless, cold-blooded efficiency on an industrial scale.”)

  5. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    Ah yes, I wanted to say it looks cute if it’s not your fruit tree it’s feasting on.
    But chigau was faster.

  6. chigau (違う) says

    The things we call ‘imported currant worms’ strip every leaf.
    strip every leaf
    The bush doesn’t die but there are no berries after it makes new leaves.

  7. opposablethumbs says

    Used to read that to the Spawn all the time :-)

    We couldn’t find a copy in the right language, so we printed out a version of the text ourselves and pasted it into the book on top of the English. Still got a couple of the books we did that with, stashed away as mementos :-)

  8. mothra says

    If it were a North American species I would say that it is almost certainly a member of the sawfly family Tenthredinidae