The Camouflaged Looper: These Caterpillars Fashion Their Own Camouflage By Collecting Flower Petals/vegetation

The Camouflaged Looper: these caterpillars fashion their own camouflage by collecting flower petals/vegetation and using silk to "glue" the pieces onto their bodies

Though they're often referred to as "camouflaged loopers," these caterpillars are the larvae of the wavy-lined emerald moth (Synchlora aerata).

Camouflaged loopers deploy a unique form of self-defense -- they snip off tiny pieces of the flowers upon which they feed, then use bits of silk to attach the vegetation to their backs. This provides them with a kind of camouflage, enabling them to blend in with the plants that they eat.

Some of them create little tufts that run along their backs, while others fashion a thicker camouflage that covers their backs completely. In some cases, the camouflaged loopers will even build much larger bundles that surround their entire bodies.

Their range includes most of North America (from southern Canada down through Texas) and they can feed upon an enormous variety of plants -- so the disguises that these caterpillars build can come in countless colors, shapes, and sizes, incorporating many different flowers and other bits of vegetation.

And this is what the fully-developed moth looks like:

Sources & More Info:

Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy: Wavy-Lined Emerald, Master of Disguise

Maryland Biodiversity Project: Wavy-Lined Emerald Moth (Synchlora aerata)

The Caterpillar Lab: Camouflaged Looper

University of Alberta Museums: Synchlora aerata

Missouri Department of Conservation: Wavy-Lined Emerald

Nebraskaland Magazine: The Amazing Camouflaged Looper

Lake County Forest Preserves: Camouflage Revealed

Moth Of The Day #270

Scarce Merveille du Jour

Moma alpium

From the noctuidae family. They have a wingspan of 30-35 mm. They can be found in the Palearctic Realm.

Image sources: [1] [2]

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bugs insect silly sillyposting moth moths silly post bugblr bugcore cute bugs lepidoptera lepidopterology pretty moth

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prettypr0blems

1 year ago

Reblog to give your mutuals one of each

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prettypr0blems

1 year ago

Hey can I show u somethin?

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prettypr0blems

1 year ago

Moth Of The Day #272

Coenobasis amoena

From the limacodidae family. There is little to no information recorded about this moth.

Image sources: [1] [2]

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bugs insect silly sillyposting moth moths silly post bugblr bugcore cute bugs lepidoptera lepidopterology pretty moth

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prettypr0blems

1 year ago

i'm so normal i'm so normal i'm so normal i'm so norma-

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prettypr0blems

1 year ago

I’m so emotional about dinosaur stuffed animals,,, there are these creatures, extinct long before any of us were alive, but we found their bones and their eggs and their footprints. And we made drawings and models of what they could’ve looked like. And we made them into stuffed animals so we could hold them. We made them soft so we could love them. I’m sobbing

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dinosaurs kidcore plushies stuffed animals stuffed dinosaurs humanity softcore softness i love dinosaurs so much they are so lovely yet so strange these creatures existed so long ago so long before us and isn’t that amazing?

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