THANKS to amateur naturalist Tina Gibb of Atherton for enlightening me on the mystery of the three inch long "cartoon" caterpillar I stumbled across in St Helens Road recently.
She says it could be the larva of the elephant hawk moth (deilephila elpenor).
So much more helpful than my humorous Atherton correspondent Arthur Westwood who suggests I shouldn't worry, it will eventually turn into something else!
Karen Gildart tells me she also came across a similarly described critter near to the new Barratt homes site in Pennington and hopes I can solve the puzzler for her too.
I'm glad I wasn't alone in encountering such an unusually cute thing. The ones I usually see are small, green and stick to my washing on the line.
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