Forget cats and dogs – caterpillars make the best pets | Patrick Barkham

While butterflies are ubiquitous from stationery to fashion, we have forgotten how to appreciate these humble, hungry, miraculous creatures

" Patrick Barkham is a Guardian writer

Butterflies are ubiquitous in our culture, via dresses, prints, cards and tattoos, but the humble caterpillar is surely overdue a revival. Whenever I've paused by a sizeable nettle patch this year, I've found them - writhing balls of black peacock caterpillars and black-and-fluorescent-lime small tortoiseshells. Less conspicuous are red admirals, which neatly stitch together two sides of nettle leaf and live inside a little tent.

I've seen Twitter pictures of freshly flailed nettle patches that had harboured hundreds of caterpillars, which will now never become butterflies. Enhanced caterpillar-consciousness would halt such destruction.

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