Yard Critter of the Week - Camouflaged Looper Caterpillar

I was wandering about our back garden, looking at all the insects busying themselves in our Mountain Mint patch when I spotted some curious movement. A bit of brown, waving in the breeze.

Except, there was no breeze.

Intrigued I looked closer. And spotted this.

At first I wasn't sure if it was a creature of some sort, or just a bit of old leaf, perhaps stuck in some spider web, jiggling as other insects hit the web or the leaves it was attached to.

But no, this is a caterpillar. A Camouflaged Looper Caterpillar.

It takes bits of the plants it eats, it prefers flowers, and using silk it spins attaches them to its body. Here it has adorned itself with the dead flowers from the mountain mint; you can see a few of the brown flowers still on the mountain mint flower head.

This critter is small! It is just to the right of this conveniently located dime, which completely covers a mountain mint flower head.

The Camouflaged Looper Caterpillar becomes the Wavy-lined Emerald Moth. We'll be watching the moth sheet to see if this little fashionista makes it to moth-hood. And if it does I'll let you know.

🐛  🐛  🐛  🐛  🐛

You can find all of the Yard Critter posts listed here.