White cedars are a native tree growing freely in our area. Every year in autumn they are invaded by hordes of hairy caterpillars - leptocneria reducta - that completely strip the trees of foliage. By day the caterpillars hide in the leaf litter at the base of the tree. At dusk they climb in masses up to the tree tops where they feast on the foliage all night. There are so many that when you stand under the tree you can actually hear them feeding. When the tree is stripped bare they leave and process off to find another tree to attack.
We have two trees near the house about 100 metres apart. The first is all but consumed as you can see by the central image. Very soon now they will move and the second tree will act as host to the invading army.
At the end of their cycle they emerge as a rather insignificant brown moth.
@http365proj No Shirley,not every year and certainly not as severely as this year. But the distruction is quick. The caterpillar shots were taken over two nights and the central image is the tree this morning, I expect they will probably move on tonight. Amazingly the trees survive. They are deciduous and therefore seem to be able to cope with this late autumn attack.
@sangwann Yes as I prdicted most have moved on tonight and a couple of flying foxes (fruit bats) have moved in to eat the exposed berry sized fruit on the tree.
