A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
This larva wins the stick look-a-like contest hands down. It is absolutely perfect, even with little cracks and stick-like imperfections included in the texture of the skin. At rest, it holds itself stiffly out from a branch or leaf, holding on with only the two anal prolegs. These legs even have little root-like protrusions to help it look more like a plant. The head end looks square and blunt like the end of a stick. In fact, the head capsule is quite difficult to find. A close-up (Picture 5) shows how the head is bent forward and inward and is all but invisible. The 3 pair of true legs are tightly fitted in against the body below the head capsule. At first I thought these legs were rudimentary and useless, but as you can see in Picture 6, they are normal sized if not large and quite functional. In the last picture, you can also see the head swung out forward and in feeding position. The color and texture of the skin is remarkable. I only saw it because it chose a reddish branch of a Fuchsia bush and didn't quite match.
Garden, semi-urban area, San Cristobal de Las Casas, 2,200 meters.
Another different species of Geometrid imitating a stick was spotted in May. That one is more moss-like, lacks the root-like extensions on the anal prolegs and has a slightly different truncated head. http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/228...
Spotted on Jul 10, 2013
Submitted on Jul 16, 2013
2 Comments
Thank you Jemma :) Mimicry like this just blows me away.....
Geometrids are fascinating!!