sinister beauty

I'm not the biggest fan of caterpillars and i'm sure most gardeners aren't. In fact, caterpillars are considered pests on account of the destruction they cause and the consequent heartache which ensues. It doesn't help that these little buggers have the propensity to inflict quite a nasty rash upon physical contact, especially the hairy ones.

When I chanced upon this pair of bright canary yellow caterpillars happily chewing on my variegated  Alocasia, my first instinct was to cut them in half with my gardening shears and toss them into the pond as fish-food. However, I held back as they were unusual and visually quite stunning. I tried to carry out some research on the web to see what type of butterfly they would metamorphosise into but to no avail. At the time, I ought to have put them in a make-shift butterfly tank but I appeared to have been more fixated with the damage done to my Alocasia. So I took them to a street nearby and left them by a tree with the hope that they would continue their journey into adulthood, failing which, end up as bird food. (which is perfectly acceptable as it is part of the food chain) 

Just as an aside, gardeners including myself ought to be mindful that whilst we do not generally welcome caterpillars in our garden, they are an integral part of our ecosystem as they are, like bees, important pollinators of plants. Without them, nature as we know it, may not be as diverse or beautiful