Caterpillars: European Peacock

Not all that pretty, this one. It is the spiky caterpillar of the European peacock (Aglais io), dagpauwoog in Dutch:

^{Olympus XZ-1, 28mm, ISO100, f5.6, 1/125s}

To make things even less pleasant to look at, these caterpillars are usually found in clusters on nettles:

^{Olympus Stylus 1s, 42mm, ISO400, f8, 1/100s}

Still, there are good reasons to keep some nettles standing in your garden, because this is the butterfly these caterpillars will eventually change into:

^{Olympus Stylus 1s, 300mm, ISO100, f5.6, 1/500s}

You can find more photos of this butterfly here.

Thanks for watching!

Previous in series: Poplar Hawk-Moth.