Camouflaged Looper

And the award for the best costume goes to the Camouflaged Looper (Synchlora aerata). A little inch worm which generally is no larger than 1/2 inch in length. The challenge of the Camouflaged Looper being an inch worm is that inch worms are a favorite food of many birds. And this challenge is met with an extremely clever costume.

This amazing effort of the Camouflaged Looper to blend in with its surroundings is called “crypsis.” Much like another word – crypt – which comes from the Greek word “apokruphos” meaning secretive or to hide.

Their clever costume is created by selecting snippets of plants they are wandering through. Snippets that are fastened to their body with bits of silk in hopes that birds will not recognize them as dinner.

This costume is replaced nearly everyday keeping those snippets, the petals or leaves or seeds which constitute its disguise fresh and able to blend in with the plant that the Camouflaged Looper is nibbling on.

When the remarkably shrewd inch worm pupates, it transforms into a Wavy Lined Emerald Moth which is a small, soft shade of green, moth, found through much of eastern North America. Being nocturnal the adults can be found fluttering around your porch light at night. If you happen to find one of these Camouflaged Loopers costumed in your garden, savor its ability, enjoy its cleverness. They don’t show up in large numbers. They are no threat to your garden plants. Simply admire them.