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Underwater caterpillar

SweetPea2022SweetPea2022 Posts: 42
in Wildlife gardening
I saw this caterpillar in my mini-pond today, it is alive and has been moving around! Does anyone know what type it is and whether it will damage my pond plants? Happy for it to stay if it's not a pest. 

Posts

  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445
    It doesn't look like an aquatic creature


    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • philippasmith2philippasmith2 Posts: 3,742
    Mullein moth ? as per @nutcutlet it doesn't look like an aquatic.
  • Winston_The_Gravity_ManWinston_The_Gravity_Man Posts: 263
    Swimming caterpilars ?  We'll be fighting for our lives against pussycats with opposable thumbs next, you mark my words ! :D
    When there's always biscuits in the tin, where's the fun in biscuits ?
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,618
    edited May 2023

     From the moth site..

    "Most truly aquatic caterpillars belong to a group known as snout moths because of the shape of their mouthparts. They constitute a single family, Crambidae, although some taxonomists do not make so neat a distinction, breaking down the classification into various subgroups. It matters not to the caterpillars.

    Aquatic caterpillars stay almost entirely on their food plants or graze on algae-covered rocks and other objects. Some damage plants such as water lilies but also attack noxious invasives such as hydrilla."

    I did catch quite  a few snout moths last summer, I had no idea there were aquatic caterpillars.  I also had one night when I had hundreds of water veneers, tiny micromoths similar to flies in size, they also have aquatic caterpillars.


    https://ukmoths.org.uk/species/acentria-ephemerella/




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