MOSSEL BAY NEWS - After Mossel Bay Advertiser published a photograph and an article, Wiggly ''worm" identified, last week, a Great Brak resident sent the Advertiser two photographs for identification.

Last week's photograph was of a drone fly larva, known as the rat-tailed maggot. 

Photographs

Audrey van der Merwe's photographs are of a spider's nest and a group of caterpillars on a tree. Professor Martin Villet, deputy head of the Rhodes University Department of Zoology and Entomology, said: "The caterpillars in the image are Lasiocampidae." He said they should not be handled because their hairs can sting. 

Moths

The caterpillars turn into brownish moths. "The caterpillars are indigenous and generally feed only on tree species." Villet stressed that the caterpillars do not feed indiscriminately, so they are not a threat to garden plants, which is what Audrey was worried about. 

Villet identified the spider's nest as one constructed by the rain spider, Palystes.

The spider's nest.
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