Beautiful Bird Droppings

Beautiful Wood-Nymph - Hodges#9301 (Eudryas grata)

These caterpillar and moths are prized finds for moth-ers. I have only found one.  😧  They are gorgeous but the prize is that they are one of the creatures that look like bird droppings. You can't tell that from the caterpillar stage; perhaps you can't even tell from the adult moth. But when you see the moth live and in person, they look like bird droppings and you are tempted to move on and search for other insects. 

Dorsal view of a Beautiful Wood-Nymph adult on house.

Side view

There are only three species in the genus Eudryas. They all pretty much look the same except for the pattern and shape of the edge of the wings. 

The problem with Eudryas (not for me, but for Jody, when she found that caterpillar at her garden) is that they can skeletonize your grape vines. You can see that in the photo below. Jody lets the grapes go in order to let the moths live and because she is not going to use chemicals in her garden. Bugguide says that "[l]arvae feed on leaves of several shrubs, vines: Ampelopsis (a genus of climbing shrubs, in the grape family Vitaceae), Buttonbush, grape, hops, Virginia Creeper. Adults do not feed?"  I am very surprised that nobody knows if the adults feed or not. 

Our caterpillar devouring Jody's grape vines.

Beautiful wood-nymphs are only one of bird dropping camouflage animals. Another, also difficult to find, is:

Small Bird Dropping Moth - Hodges#9095 (Ponometia erastrioides)

Whenever I see something that looks like bird droppings, I never assume it's a bird dropping. I gently poke with a soft blade of grass to see if it is alive. I'm glad I did that when I found another bird dropping on the bark of a gray birch tree one day and found  . . . 

Canadian Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio canadensis) larva, 1st instar 

That caterpillar goes through 4 or 5 more instars until it pupates and metamorphoses into . . . 

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Be careful out there with bird droppings!

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