Is this a good caterpillar?

[Whatshallabee]

Found it on a neighbour’s hostas.

IIRC there’s a new invasive type which we should report but for the life of me I can’t remember what it is.

Yes, definitely, haven’t looked it up yet but my first guess would be a tussock moth

I'm no gardener but it looks very well behaved to me 😃

Try this: white marked tussock moth

but probably more likely

My first thought was Vapourer moth. Best get rid before they completely defoliate the plants, I’m afraid.

Hello Whatshallabee,

The plant in your picture looks like a Bergenia and the caterpillar 🐛 could possibly be a knotgrass caterpillar as it feeds on perennials.

www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/how-to-grow-bergenias/

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/moths/knot-grass

Happy gardening
👩‍🌾

It’s too late for that, I’m afraid! The plants are decimated. They’re in the front garden on the pavement so I walk past them everyday. Sorry to the PP who said they were berginias - I’m not a great gardener.

Just googled berginia -yes, that looks familiar but they didn’t flower this year.

Not Knotgrass, which lacks the ‘tail’ and ‘ears’ which are typical of Vapourer larvae.

Funnily enough this week, I took a photo of this caterpillar having seen them decimate a friend's pyracantha.
Google says it's a tussock/vapourer moth.
It looks similar to your photo.
We're in the South East where it was all about the box moth last summer.

The plant in your picture looks like a Bergenia and the caterpillar 🐛 could possibly be a knotgrass caterpillar as it feeds on perennials. Knotgrass moth larva lacks the 4 yellow tufts which can clearly be seen on OP’s photo.

Never mind - they have contributed to another generation of a beautiful UK species. Next year the thing to do would be to pick them off and put them in a box with a range of different leaves of plants you don’t care about. When you find out which they’ll eat, re-locate them

Incidentally, vapourer is a tussock moth, also known as Rusty tussock moth

I think the Vapourer moth is a species which disperses entirely through the caterpillar. The female moths are flightless, essentially a big, bag of eggs (I think there's a moth that's a pest of fruit trees with a similar life cycle...codlin?). She emits a pheromone to attract the males (that do fly). The eggs hatch into these rather punky looking caterpillars that march off, once big enough, to spread the species.