Favoritos de tartdragon

I observed this camouflaged Looper caterpillar on a California Buckwheat flower. The first photo seems to be just a California Buckwheat, but a closer look shows the Synchlora aerata caterpillar camouflaged with California Buckwheat flowers at the top of the flower. The last two photos show why this caterpillar is referred to as the Camouflaged Looper caterpillar.

"These caterpillars of the Wavy-lined Emerald moth disguise themselves with their own camouflage from the plants they feed on. Their Pupa also use plant pieces as camouflage for part of its cocoon.

Looper Caterpillars are members of a large family of moths known as geometrids. The name geometrid derives from Greek roots meaning earth measurer. Another common name for geometrid caterpillars is inchworms, and as loopers and inchworms move along, they do appear to measure the earth inch by inch. Camouflaged loopers eat many types of flowers including ageratum, aster, black-eyed Susan, boneset, daisy, goldenrod, ragweed, raspberry, rose, sage, St. John’s wort, and yarrow. The adult moth of this camouflaged looper is known as the Wavy-lined Emerald."

~2 .5 mm green metallic body with a thin rectangular pronotum collar, red eyes, 5 tarsi on all legs, 6 funicular segments plus a fused club of 3 segments. Had white wing veins; long marginal and a short stigmal vein with an uncus. Was observed ovipositing into a hole previously made inside a flower. On 3/4/24 Roger A. Burks commented in Facebook, Hymenopterists Forum group, "I think it is Pteromalus (Habrocytus) in the albipennis group. These are parasitoids of Tephritidae in the flowers." The flowers on this plant in the Asteraceae family have been visited by 3 different species of Tephritidae recently. (Helpful study: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jzs.12433). See similar observation set.