I found it today, half rolled up in a small heather bush that has the same bright green colour. I took it out for a moment to be able to get a good photograph. It is alive but very slow probably because of the cold.
It's very difficult to find information about different caterpillars on the web, also my butterfly books hardly give any pics of caterpilars.
I'm sure I have seen the same one bonitin, but what it is is a mystery, lol, if you fancy trawling through lots of pics I have some links. This one is Northern Europe but many will be the same,
http://kimmos.freeshell.org/lnel/species.htm
A few pics on this ID site,
http://www.whatsthiscaterpillar.co.uk/
Thanks for the links, wallaby.
Although I didn't find mine, it was entertaining!
I guess if you know which butterflies (which I think it might be as moth caterpillars are usually more attractive) you have normally that would have caterpillars overwinter you could search for those.
They are good reference sites.
I have indeed found good reference sites, I have seen sooooooooooooooo many caterpillars by now that I'm getting cross-eyed and might dream about them,lol!
But alas, no success, only some look-a-likes. I've posted it now to a Flemish nature forum and hope they can find out, they have a special section for caterpillar IDs.
He looks similar to the Spiramater Moth cat:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://i.pbase.com/t4/94/339594/4/52491012.PHZR2HZRNHRR2H1ZEH1HQL1ZMLFH7HOHNHYHML3HILVZQL6Z4LWZ7LVZPHVZ6HAH6HBZIL9ZPHHR.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.pbase.com/tmurray74/moth_caterpillars&h=160&w=160&sz=6&hl=en&start=3&um=1&tbnid=4R2_lwKrxHiZWM:&tbnh=98&tbnw=98&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dspiramater%2Blutra%2Blarvae%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN
But, not exactly, so I'm not positive.
It does look very much like it fly_girl!
Unfortunately, unless they have migrated, they are not known in Europe.
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/jdsml/research-curation/projects/butmoth/GenusDetails.dsml?NUMBER=27369.0&AUTHOR=McCabe&beginIndex=0&listPageURL=GenusList2%2edsml%3fAUTHOR%3dMcCabe&searchPageURL=BrowseAuthors%2edsml%3fAUTHOR%3dMcCabe
I googled and only found Nth American sites too.
Thanks Fly-girl, it does look much alike only that mine is more bright green, shiny and lacks these diagonal faint brownish markings on the sides.
And like wallaby states they normally don't occur in Europe.
Somehow it does look very familiar, I saw a drawing of it in one of my insect books, but pictured as a prey of an Amophila that was dragging it to her nest, unfortunately they didn't mention the name of the caterpillar.
Here's another I thought it looked similar to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_Underwing
I think it may be of the family Noctuidae, it has that 'cutworm' look and pose when disturbed.
The family can be researched on here, some have caterpillar pics.
http://ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?id=1011
http://www.hantsmoths.org.uk/moths/moth_2297.htm
The next site has links with one for caterpillars of the featured moth
http://www.suffolkmoths.org.uk/cgi-bin/mos/account.cgi?code=2298
Moths of Europe and Nth Africa
http://www.leps.it/indexjs.htm?SpeciesPages/AmphiBerbe.htm
Thank you fly-girl and wallaby!
I've just got a reply on my ID request on the Flemish Nature Forum.
Two members agreed that it could be the caterpillar of Phlogophora meticulosa, a fairly common (but beautiful) moth in Europe.
http://safari.zog.org/images/20041127_143420_DSC9027-thumb.jpg
No spots (I can see 1), but it is pale
http://www.habitas.org.uk/moths/larva.asp?item=6402
Looking more closely there are some small spots on the white line.
I can see the subtle dorsal line on the uk-link that mine also has, only the colour is not so bright green but that might be due to light conditions when photographing...
I didn't noticed it the next day, although I had put it back (after taking its pic) in exactly the same place I found it. It might have ended up in the stomach of my blackbird or Blue tit...
They can move around but yes it may have ended up a meal! Robins like them too!
This site should be useful to you! Choose a language then you will find a link to 'Checklists' on the left to the Lepidoptera of Belgium
http://www.phegea.org/
Thanks wallaby!
I came upon this great website yesterday and have added to my favorites. But it is VERY slow in downloading the picts..and its a pity they don't show the caterpillars..
That's true, no spots except one faint one on the UK site, but in the Safari site they are more or less visible..
http://www.gardensafari.net/pics/nachtvlinders/macro/uilen/phlogophora_meticulosa_hs6_1495.jpg
