Friday, March 13, 2015

The caterpillars eat their match, part three

Compared to the orange-barred sulphur butterflies, adult geometrid moths do not appear very active (at least not during the day)...

A pale beauty moth (Campaea perlata).
...and most of them are not very bright or flashy.

A large lace-border moth (Scopula limboundata).
However, geometrid caterpillars can be just as impressive as orange-barred sulfur caterpillars when it comes to blending in with the flowers that they eat.

A purple geometrid caterpillar on purple flowers.
In addition, at least some geometrid caterpillars have the same ability to change their color in order to match their background.  

A pink geometrid caterpillar on a pink rose blossom.
Although many geometrid species feed on other parts of plants (and mimic those instead), there are well over a thousand species of geometrid moths in North America -- including plenty of ones with colorful, flower-eating caterpillars.  See a few more of them here: Geometrid larvae on flowers

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