The lake and the larva...

Today I ventured out to the lakes in Colliers Green hoping to get some photographs, however as I approached via a field that in summer is filled with the heavy scent of flowering clover and today was , well just slush really, it began to snow again and so what I found a few moments later surprised me to say the least.
There beside one of the smaller lakes was a Drinker Moth Caterpillar!
It wasn't curled-up in hibernation as you would expect (these large larvae are usually about during late summer and even into the autumn before hibernating to complete their growth in the spring) but appeared to be quite mobile.
Perhaps it had just woken from it's slumber for a drink? The caterpillar gets it's name from it's supposed habit of drinking the dew.I am fairly sure at 50mm it wasn't a fully grown adult, I have photographed them at over 75mm in early summer.







One of the lakes in Colliers Green today.

 



The Drinker Moth Caterpillar (Euthrix potatoria)