A few weeks ago, I caught a geometrid moth inside the house and released it into the garden that night. In the meantime, the moth laid a clutch of bright green eggs in the jar. When they hatched, I made an educated guess about a suitable food plant and let the tiny, cotton-thin caterpillars crawl onto a firewheel tree (Stenocarpus sinuatus).This morning, I spotted a geometrid caterpillar, hale and hearty and chewing its way through my once beautiful but now increasingly tatty plant. I'm not sure that it's one of the specimen jar cohort because all geometrids look the same to me. If any geometrid fancier can identify mother moth and/or caterpillar, let me know.
On being surprised by a camera-wielding lepidopterazzi, the caterpillar adopted a characteristic geometrid pose. Moments before, it has been nibbling its way through a leaf. Then it extended its body to resemble a twig, letting go with its true legs, holding on with its ventral and anal prolegs and winding out a silk thread from its mouth as it straightened up. Had it not been rather too bold with its daytime feeding and the sloppy disposal of its poo, I would never have seen it. As long as it doesn't destroy the Stenocarpus, I wish it luck.
