Mimicked a Twig.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20298, 7 May 1934, Page 6

Mimicked a Twig .

Nature Notes

By

James Drummond.

F.L.S., F.Z.S.

a black currant bush in his garden at Tahiapau, Hawke’s Bay, Mr S. F. Stevens put out his hand to remove a small dead twig. He found that the twig was a caterpillar in disguise. It was about an inch long and dark green. It seemed to have only two pairs of feet. These were at its posterior end. With them it clung to a branch and it threw out its body at right angles to the support, resembling a twig so closely that it might have deceived even an entomologist conversant with insects' most cunning and successful devices to avoid recognition by enemies. The number and position of its feet stamp that caterpillar as a member of the Geometridae, geometers, or earth measurers. Americans call their members of this farflung moth family the measuring worms. In .the Old Country they are called loopers. All these names have been given on account of the caterpillars’ peculiar gait when walking. The feet are moved up towards the thorax, and the body is thrown into a large loop. The caterpillars seem to be carefully measuring the ground they pass over. The Geometridae are the most interesting group of New Zealand’s Lepidoptera. The number of species known in New Zealand is no fewer than 243 Many, in the perfect stage of moths, are handsome and gay. Some species dwell in the mountains, never leaving the fastnesses, and Mr G. V. Hudson believes that novelties in this family await discovery in the wild country of the Southern Sounds.