It's tiny, covered in hair, and has spines filled with venom potent enough to cause long-lasting, painful, effects, like muscle spasms, in humans

For flannel moth caterpillars, every day is a bad hair day. Looking variously like 1980s fashion relics, worn-out toothbrushes or something dreamed up by Donald Trump's hairdresser, these insects somehow don't seem quite natural.

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Like anyone who wakes up with a bad case of bed-head, the caterpillars are liable to take out their frustrations on anything that gets in their way. Hidden away among all that luxuriant fur are rows of sharp, stout, hollow spines - rather like porcupine quills - that inject a dose of potent venom into would-be predators.

For humans, the severe and long-lasting effects of being 'flannelled' include rashes and blisters, swollen limbs, nausea, headaches, muscle spasms, stomach pains and even breathing difficulties.

Victims have described the pain at the site of contact as like being hit with a hammer, breakin an arm, and worse than kidney stones. So point and laugh all you like - but you'd better not touch

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