Camouflaged Loopers

This is a perennial favorite of mine, Camouflaged Looper, the larva stage of the Wavy-Lined Emerald Moth.  There are two caterpillars in the photo, one to each side of the central disk.  Camouflaged Loopers commonly feed on the disk flowers of species in the Aster family, so spend much time exposed to view.  In order to look less like a tasty morsel to passing predators, this caterpillar adorns its body with bits of the plant on which it is feeding.  To the casual eye, it looks just like a part of the plant.

At Blue Jay Barrens, Orange Coneflower, Rudbeckia fulgida, seems to be the plant of choice for this species.  I encourage a large patch of Orange Coneflower to grow outside the front door of my house, so I can enjoy the Camouflaged Loopers through their entire season.

This looper was cleaning its mouth or doing some similar facial area grooming.  I gave it high marks for doing what I thought was a superb Godzilla impersonation.

The above video shows some typical Camouflaged Looper behavior.  If you turn your sound on, you will notice the chatter and buzz of Hummingbirds passing over my head.  My Hummingbird feeders are only about eight feet from me.  I posted a longer version of this film to YouTube which you can view by clicking HERE.

Camouflaged Looper

The deformity on the disk of this coneflower is not really a part of the flower. It’s a Camouflaged Looper, the larvae of a moth called the Wavy-lined Emerald, Synchlora aerata. The moth is common in our area so the larvae could be found just about anywhere.

The Camouflaged Looper takes bits of the plant it feeds on and attaches them to its body. Composite flowers such as this, often have odd growths in the disk and most people tend to ignore them. I’m sure predators that hunt on flowers also pay little attention to unusual lumps of plant material. This provides an enhanced level of safety to the little larva.

The larva usually has its head buried in the flower upon which it feeds. This larva was disturbed by my picture taking and lifted its head. The head is on the right side.

A substantial path has been grazed through the center of this flower. Small ants follow the loopers and feed on sap flowing from the plant. The abdomen of the ant in the foreground is full of sap.

Here’s the tail end of the larva on the left. If you see something odd about the center disk of a composite flower, take a close look to see if it might be one of these interesting creatures. There were several larvae in this small patch of coneflowers.