Enjoy It While It Lasts

This startling bug was ambling around on my buddleia shrub this morning. I've never seen one of these before!

It took a bit of Googling to find that it's the caterpillar of the Rusty Tussock Moth aka Vapourer Moth. After going through this ornate and colourful phase of its life cycle, it emerges as a small, rather plain brown day-moth. If it's lucky and a male it flies around in daylight while the hapless female moths are flightless. Not much of a life if you ask me.