Twig Mimicry…
I should have done this post last fall. If you’ll allow me to wave my wand, let’s go back to a day in late fall when we were wiring a quince, only to find…
…a shy inchworm waving around on a twig:
Where is the critter? (This is a Where’s Waldo? moment, for those who are into that…)
Here it is!
And here’s another Waldo, on another day…a grey little fella.
Although these finds were not thrilling, as they were both nibbling on the bonsai, I have a deeper layer of appreciation about these sorts of discoveries that comes from my entomologist father. I was amazed at this inchworm’s accurate mimicry of a quince’s leafless twig. The grey was exactly a quince’s twig grey…the dark marks on it were EXACTLY the quince’s lenticels (where leaves had dropped off)…and even the spacing of them was just right. I was blown away. If it hadn’t moved, I would have never seen it. Left me with high respect for such a sneaky, shy animal who isn’t afraid to use some ninja skills to get its lunch.
12 Comments
How well do they respond to being wired?
I was too surprised to experiment…
The tree or the inch worm?
I suspect even the quince was fooled.
I’m sure you’re right. Being invisibly nibbled on would be very disorienting.
My, what short little internodes it has!
good technique, yes…or just good genetics perhaps…
Hah!
Wow i am impressed as I was gonna think this was a joke about your finger!!! thanks for the info!!
So happy you found the little buggers – pun intended. Nature is amazing.
Eat your heart out, chameleons!
I’ve seen these fellas before, totally amazing, they must be one of the best on this job.
And they are the best way to increase ramification over just one night. 🙂