Caterpillar

While gathering some nuts for the squirrels, I saw a yellow-green caterpillar crawling in the grass.

He was looking quite weird. having a kind of long red tail sticking up at the rear end.

I decided to take him home and find out all about him. I put him in a glass container, so that he would not run away, before I had found out his name. (Pale Tussock)(Calliteara pundibunda)(Meridians borstel).

He is really funny, having some brushes on his back, and the red brush at the end...

His host-plants are many, like beech, oak, birch and other trees. He pupates in leaflitter and overwinter as a cocoon. So I put him out under a birch-tree in my garden, between lots of leaves, so that he can cocoon someplace he likes.