Autumn Beauty

The mystery visitor to the rose bushes has finally been named ... It is the larvae of Acronicta psi - Grey dagger moth. It is found in Europe, Northern Africa and Asia and the adults feed on at least 25 different plant and tree species, which is probably why it appears to be so successful [even if I have never seen it before!]

It has taken three days to photograph. Many, many, many out-of-focus blobs were deleted. Even at the last moment this one turned its front end round out of sight so its front and central 'horns' cannot be seen. All that is left is the back end, no middle and then just an out of focus head? on the right.
Hours later after trolling through web sites by the million... we finally found an image .. and the mystery was solved. If you really want to see a whole larvae try Google - it is quite easy now we have the name.

The larvae will pupate and over-winter until next spring/summer when it will have lost its juvenile bright colours to become a grey moth. It does have black dagger marks on its wings [hence the name] so it is not too plain but remains well camouflaged on tree bark. As we have at least 6 of its tree foods in our garden I am not sure why the female picked our roses to lay eggs on. She would have been very visible to predators ... although come to think of it, as a noctuid moth nothing could see her whatever her colour. Obviously grey is just a fashion statement!

I hope it is dry tomorrow so that I can catch up with my gardening. It is amazing how much everything grows in three days.