The black and yellow markings are warning to any potential predator that this tiger moth caterpillar is poisonous. The spiky hairs all along the body are a further deterrent, as are the glassy spikes on the leaf. The caterpillar is actually resting on one of the discarded catkins from a birch tree. I had to look twice to chech that was vegetable rather than some other species of caterpillar.
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