A rather fine caterpillar

Walking across the Sands of Forvie I was losing hope of finding anything to blip. Then I found this little beauty; in reality a rather large beauty, crawling across the path.

It is a caterpillar of the Emperor Moth Saturnia pavonia, thus named by Linnaeus, in1758.

According to ukmoths.org.uk this spectacular moth is Britain's only resident member of the Saturniidae family. It is reasonably common over much of Britain, occupying moorland and open country.

The males, which have bright orange hindwings, fly during the daytime in search of the more grey females, which fly at night. Both sexes are on the wing in April and May.

The fully grown caterpillars are green with black hoops containing yellow, red or pink wart-like spots, and feed on moorland plants such as heather (Calluna) and bramble (Rubus).