Identify my bug, please.

Just noticed what looks like a caterpillar of some sort, on a Pelargonium I’ve got on the kitchen windowsill. iOS can’t identify it, and I’d like to know if it’s something that I could allow to keep eating holes in the leaves, or chuck it outside to leave to its own devices.

It looks very hungry.

Chuck it out.

Have you got the iNaturalist app?

It’s generally better than the iOS and when you add an observation the AI component gets backed up by other users. Sometimes they’ve corrected observations for me.

I’ve just used it to identify this as an Australasian side-necked turtle (i’m not convinced). iOS thinks it’s a Pond Slider which seems less likely. But now i’ve uploaded it to iNaturalist someone will verify or correct it.

Has it reached the chocolate cake, ice cream cone, and pickles stage yet ? Or merely on an apple or a couple of pears stage yet ?

Has it reached the…pickles stage yet

Sliced or whole?

Has it reached the chocolate cake, ice cream cone, and pickles stage yet ? Or merely on an apple or a couple of pears stage yet ?

It hasn’t moved, so probably still thinking about it.

If it turns out to be the larva of something interesting, I’ve got the parent plant in the kitchen, which is about twenty times bigger, so it could probably lose a few leaves, but if it’s just something that is just likely to cause harm, I’ll happily put it outside for the Robin.

Best I’ve been able to track down is it could be a member of the cutworm moths or owlet moths, of which there seem to be a significant number. The RHS says it’s worth tolerating them if significant damage isn’t being caused for biodiversity purposes, so I might put it onto the parent plant, which sheds large numbers of leaves anyway, and it’s so big it probably won’t notice losing a few more.

What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls a butterfly

If it turns out to be the larva of something interesting, I’ve got the parent plant in the kitchen, which is about twenty times bigger, so it could probably lose a few leaves, but if it’s just something that is just likely to cause harm, I’ll happily put it outside for the Robin.

Racist! Life or death based on the colour of its skin, eh?

Sure it’s not a stray chip?

Google lens usually does a pretty good job of IDing stuff, if you have an android phone…

Google lens usually does a pretty good job of IDing stuff, if you have an android phone…

Tried that, it directed me straight back here!

Amazing website! https://www.ukmoths.org.uk/

Can’t find cutworm or owlet on there

This one? https://www.ukmoths.org.uk/species/noctua-pronuba/larva-yellow-form/

This one?

No, the one on my plant has no black markings, the photo is pretty clear as to colour and markings, which are a pale creamy beige. It still hasn’t moved, so I’m leaving it alone, it’s not harming the plant at the moment; maybe it’s hibernating.

Stet that, I’ve just had a closer look, and there are lots of droppings all over the soil, and leaves are starting to turn brown in places. It’s a fairly young plant, grown from a small cutting taken from a plant that was my partner’s, so the creature can go outside and take its chances in the wild, where it came from.

I just tried iNaturalist, but without uploading it fully – its initial suggestion is Genus Phlogophora.

If you upload it with a location you’ll get other people that will verify or correct that identification.

That turtle i uploaded yesterday has been confirmed now as an Eastern Saw-Shelled Turtle (after the AI function mis-identified).