Willow – Tendrils

Another nod to moths in celebrating National Moth Week (July 17-25, 2021). This moth photo was in my immense file of moth images, unidentified. Many of you might know, I love a mystery and last night I looked upon this critter as one of those mysteries. Luck was with me and I was able to figure out that this is a Curve-toothed Geometer (Eutrapela clemataria). A master of camouflage in both adult and larval form. Here, as a moth the camouflage isn’t that effective against the cedar siding, but imagine this moth in a bunch of leaves and you can appreciate how clever the coloring and shading is. The caterpillar is just as ingenious, an inch-worm disguised as a stick. A stick that loves to eat the leaves of many trees. Just a few of those trees: ash, basswood, birch, elm, fir, maple, poplar, and willow.

Red-spotted Purple (Limenitis arthemis). With a wingspan of three to three and a half inches. Looking quite handsome with its iridescent blue with tiny orange spots on the dorsal (top) side of its wings. At this point I have to mention that this butterfly is on Butterfly Bush. BUT this plant is NOT in any of my gardens. As an invasive it will take over places where native plants could be growing and benefitting our natural world.

It’s the great impersonator. The Red-spotted Purple butterfly mimics the Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly. And not stopping at that, the larvae quite convincingly mimics bird droppings.

Preferred host plants of the Red-spotted Purple are a wide variety of trees and shrubs including birches, aspens, wild cherries and many species of the willow family. The adults feed on an occasional flower, as well as damp soil and puddles, carrion, dung and rotting fruit. One of those butterflies.