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Project Noah Nature School
Synchlora
This was an exciting spotting for me. The postings by PNoah members of all kinds of really interesting caterpillars have fascinated me, but I figured my spottings would be of the more mundane varieties. Then I found this one: the caterpillar of an Emerald moth. Also known as the camouflaged looper, the wavy-lined emerald moth caterpillar covers its body with fragments of whatever plant it is on to camouflage itself as it feeds. The wavy-lined emerald moth is the only widespread species to do this, but from the US state of Maryland southwards, other Synchlora species are also present and use camouflage, so the only way to achieve a definitive caterpillar ID is to raise it to adulthood to see the moth.
My yard
Spotted on Jul 7, 2013
Submitted on Jul 13, 2013
10 Comments
Thanks so much, Dez, Joshua, Agnes, NickIrvine1, Noel, Jacob and Jared! I still think this is one of the coolest caterpillars I've seen
Nice series Maria!
Excellent spotting of excellent camouflage!
Cool find, Maria!
Sneaky little booger! Great Spot Maria
Awesome mimicry! I couldn't figure it out at first!
Wow what a crazy little lookin guy!
Agree with Mark! Lovely full series!
Thanks, Mark. It is indeed hard to spot because it is so well camouflaged. I didn't realize it was there until I saw a part of the plant moving, which I couldn't figure out as there was no wind. So I stared at it for a while until I realized it was a caterpillar. I was hoping to follow its progress but we had a rainstorm and it was gone the day afterwards.
Wow impressive. It takes some effort to sort it out visually but it's worth it.