Moth caterpillars
All images on this website have been taken in Leicestershire and Rutland by NatureSpot members. We welcome new contributions - just register and use the Submit Records form to post your photos. Click on any image below to visit the species page. The RED / AMBER / GREEN dots indicate how easy it is to identify the species - see our Identification Difficulty page for more information. A coloured rating followed by an exclamation mark denotes that different ID difficulties apply to either males and females or to the larvae - see the species page for more detail.
Caterpillars
Caterpillars are the larval form of several insect groups, including moths, butterflies and sawflies. Many are colourful and ornamented with hairs and projections, usually signifying that they are are toxic to birds, their main predators. Other species are camouflaged, usually green or brown, to avoid detection.
Internet
https://lepiforum.org/ - whilst it is in German it has an excellent series of images of both adults and caterpillars so useful if you have a candidate species in mind.
Several of the websites and social media sites dedicated to moths, butterflies and sawflies cover caterpillars as well.
Field Guide to the Caterpillars of Great Britain and Ireland (Bloomsbury Wildlife Guides) - superb illustrations, plus species descriptions and distribution maps.
Field Guide to the Caterpillars of Britain and Europe (Collins Field Guide) - includes moths and butterflies. Illustrations are not the best but it does usefully group caterpillars by their food plants.
If you know of other websites or books that you would recommend, do let us know: info@naturespot.org
