Time for the six-monthly inspection of the Plumpton elm, which we are nurturing as part of the Great British Elm Experiment. It's been a tough six months for the elm - it hasn't grown an inch, let alone a millimetre, in this dry summer - the leaves are showing clear signs of drought-related distress. But it was playing host to a truly stupendous caterpillar - almost indistinguishable from the leaves. It proved to be the larva of the Pale Tussock Moth (Calliteara pudibunda) - not specific to elms but it had still made a good meal of ours.
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