Hairy caterpillar crossing road

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This Cream-spot Tiger moth caterpillar was about to be run over by cars on the busy St Ives to Lands End coastal road.

Having stopped the traffic to rescue it from impending disaster I placed it in a pot with some hastily grabbed dandelions and drove on.

By the time we’d reached our sea watching place at Pendeen, barely five minutes later, it had already consumed the best part of a leaf and assembled an impressive pile of frass.

More hairy caterpillars can be seen in hairy caterpillars and the British caterpillar gallery

Now, I’m well aware that such behaviour is befitting a caterpillar but really …!

Moments earlier it had miraculously survived being squashed, been plucked from the ground by a complete stranger, become airborne for the first time in its life, unceremoniously stuffed in a pot and driven at speeds it could only dream of.

Totally unperturbed all it could think of doing was eating!

The things we do for caterpillars!

And the ironic thing is that there’s every chance it is parasitized and I won’t even have my altruistic deed rewarded with the emergence of a moth.