WP 20140615 008

Came across this site a few weeks ago - it has images of moth caterpillars. It might help.

http://www.ukleps.org/morphology.html

Eureka!! Found it, thank you so much scottish.
Good to have a name for this beauty
None of the sites i looked at had such clear id pics.
It is a Yellow-tail (Euproctis similis) also known as Goldtail Moth or Swan Moth, apparently this one and the Brown-Tail are notorious for having extremely irritating hairs.
Good thing i didnt touch.

Glad to have helped :)

There was a rash (no pun intended) of people on the internet this summer warning everyone (especially children) not to handle the white fuzzy caterpillars which would raise blisters on the skin of anyone who allowed them to crawl on their bare hands arms or legs! will see if I can find the link for it.

I know the procession caterpillars which cause blistering if touched, they live in big spun cocoons usually high up, we had them in our pines, and march nose to tail in search of their foodplants. but don't know of any fuzzy white ones.