Cinnamon Moth and Dock Moth

Today my workday began with photographic luck: one morning, two caterpillars. It’s fascinating how a caterpillar can brighten my day.

…The thing is, I bring my camera to the factory grounds practically every day.
For one, because I can work wonderfully against office life with my hobby. And for another, because industrial areas offer many opportunities for photography, especially when you discover an interesting caterpillar.

Industrial areas are simply fantastic territories.
Poor, compact soils. Open spaces. Many spots that are simply left to themselves offer a perfect habitat for caterpillars…

Well, even in these places it’s exciting to find a caterpillar…

Today I knelt down at a completely random spot.
Just to see… Very briefly… maybe a caterpillar will turn up.

And what can I say?
Two caterpillars, not even 50 centimeters apart!

Both are not rare in NRW (Dock Moth at GBIF, Cinnamon Moth at GBIF). But I’ve never seen either of them before.

The Cinnamon Moth was probably still a bit sleepy…
To the right of the moth, you can see a little bit of foam on a blade of grass. An unknown creature—looking like a “slug” in format, but moving like something else—came out of there and crawled toward the Cinnamon Moth.
It dismissed it with little movement…

The Dock Moth, on the other hand, was already quite active:

However, once on the leaf blade, the activity was over.
I had hoped to watch the caterpillar eating. But I couldn’t eat either if someone got that intrusive with me.

I also looked at a few spots today that I want to explore tomorrow. The discovery of a caterpillar has made me curious.
Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Addendum August 2024

The following day I had no luck finding a caterpillar.

Still. Since then I’ve had a wonderful time. For example, in this summer and late summer.