Showing Tag: "pine processionary caterpillars" (Show all posts)

Another creepy crawler

Posted by Marianne Hoesen on Thursday, September 15, 2011, In : nature

You really don´t want to bump into these innocent looking little guys! They are pine processionary caterpillars (Thaumetopoea pityocapa) and live in pine trees.

In the adult phase they are a simple and unremarkable, short lived moth which emerge in the summer and fly at night. A single female can then lay up to 300 tiny eggs which she attaches in a mass to a pine needle. Around one month later these eggs hatch into minute caterpillars. These very social caterpil...