Firstly, I want to admit that I had no idea I would find this little creature lurking inside a rolled up leaf in the reeds by the River Ely during yesterday’s walk. I had noticed the mottling on some of the leaves and wondered what was causing it – a fungus maybe?

I still don’t know the answer to that question as I was completely distracted when I found the caterpillar, and was totally focused on that instead.

My find hasn’t yet been verified but I think this is the larva of the Southern wainscot moth (Mythimna straminea), which, according to the UK Moths website, overwinters as a larva and typically spends its days hiding in the stems of various Reeds (Phragmites species), emerging at night to feed.

There are only a few records of this moth in the greater Cardiff area but I doubt many people spend time checking the leaves of reeds for its larvae and I also doubt anyone ever runs a moth trap at night in this particular Grangemoor Park location, which explains the lack of records of the adult moth (a beauty you can see on UK Moths) in the immediate area.