Things are not always what they appear to be at first. William Osler reminds us that the value of experience is not in seeing much but in seeing wisely.
I am used to seeing the large webs of social spiders covering the vegetation in the Addo Elephant National Park.
When I saw trees and shrubs covered with extensive web-like nests along the roads and edges of forests in Norway, I automatically assumed they had been made by spiders.
How wrong I was: these ‘webs’ are actually spun by the caterpillars of the Bird-Cherry Ermine moths (Yponomeuta evonymella) which are found throughout Europe. Their Norwegian name is Heggspinnmøll – roughly translated as Hedge Spinner Moth.
These silken webs protect the caterpillars against avian predators – and having poked at them with a stick, I can attest to them being tough – which allows them to eat the leaves of their host plants unhindered.
Something Over Tea 