The Bird Cherry moths have been at our beautiful avenue of Bird Cherry trees again and even more of the avenue has been affected (all but a couple have been completely de-foliated (is that a word?)). The trees featured in the BBC Quiz of the week today and we had an interesting conversation with a drunk about them at lunchtime (he thought it was a student prank!) The first two photos were taken last week when there were still some leaves and bottom right was from today - they are like grey ghost trees. If previous years are anything to go by they will get a few new leaves and apparently they don't cause long term damage but I don't see how they can tolerate it year after year. The moth is quite a pretty white and brown affair.
I love these caterpillars. I've never seen this even aside from in photos / the news but I think it's great and it's just how eco systems work - if the trees couldn't handle it, there wouldn't be all these moths. What a brilliant set of photos.
@jewelsandbinoculars Spreads out 8 or 10 feet across the grass in the end - very strange. Beautiful trees in blossom but the ones that have been infested the last couple of years have been a bit weary.
These appear to be what we call Tent Caterpillars. They just feed on the first set of leaves, then go do their thing to become moths. As I recall, they run in a 7 year cycle. On that 7th year some bird comes in and feeds on them. For the life of me I can't think of the bird right now. I think it is as Louise, above, mentioned - all part of the ecosystem. Nice collage, btw, depicting the progress.
OMG Judith!! I hope they're not these too. They're actually on the tree next to our cherry tree...not sure that makes any difference. They're probably ready to jump across! They do look a different colour but that web looks very familiar xx
May 21st, 2014
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