Well-camouflaged "looper caterpillar" pretending to be a stick
I found a different well-camouflaged "looper caterpillar" of a Geometrid Moth (Geometridae, Lepidoptera) pretending to be a stick today. It's on a stem of native Chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum, Rosaceae), and I'm sure I only noticed it because I got this photo of a similar caterpillar yesterday. That's its tail on the left with two pairs of prolegs and its head on top with three pairs of true legs that are barely visible. It's interesting that it has little protuberances coming out from its body that are like the "pegs" that the needle-like leaves of chamise come from. This caterpillar is not small, it's at least an inch long. I don't believe I've seen one of these before, and I don't know what kind of moth it will become. (San Marcos Pass, 14 May 2019)
We were right on the edge of the marine layer today. The fog would spill over the mountains propelled by "fog winds" - and then back off for a moment of calm. We now have "rain likely" Wednesday night and Thursday, and it sounds like this might be a real storm with an inch or more of rain in the mountains. There's more info in the new post at the California Weather Blog with the title "Highly unusual sequence of winter-like storms headed for California (in late May!)"
Well-camouflaged "looper caterpillar" pretending to be a stick
I found a different well-camouflaged "looper caterpillar" of a Geometrid Moth (Geometridae, Lepidoptera) pretending to be a stick today. It's on a stem of native Chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum, Rosaceae), and I'm sure I only noticed it because I got this photo of a similar caterpillar yesterday. That's its tail on the left with two pairs of prolegs and its head on top with three pairs of true legs that are barely visible. It's interesting that it has little protuberances coming out from its body that are like the "pegs" that the needle-like leaves of chamise come from. This caterpillar is not small, it's at least an inch long. I don't believe I've seen one of these before, and I don't know what kind of moth it will become. (San Marcos Pass, 14 May 2019)
We were right on the edge of the marine layer today. The fog would spill over the mountains propelled by "fog winds" - and then back off for a moment of calm. We now have "rain likely" Wednesday night and Thursday, and it sounds like this might be a real storm with an inch or more of rain in the mountains. There's more info in the new post at the California Weather Blog with the title "Highly unusual sequence of winter-like storms headed for California (in late May!)"