The Drinker!

Well spotted Jamie! Love it when we get to find freaky caterpillars.

This is a big caterpillar - it may not be so obvious from the photo, but it was big and chunky with an orange horn at the front as well as all the other tufts you can see. It will turn into the Drinker Moth - not so dramatic as the larvae as is so often the case.

When I moved some stones to protect him from predators, it rolled into a ball and rolled away!

Oh, and it mostly likes grasses and reeds so no problem on the allotment.