The Infant

Archiearis infans

This beautiful creature is a moth. And another geometer! Besides being called The Infant, it is also called the First-born Geometer. I was so sure it was a butterfly that I could add to my life list of butterfly photographs — I never saw the fuzzy antennae that moths, and not butterflies, have. But it's another notch on my geometer moth list!

The common names refer "to the adult's early emergence from a pupa in the spring." This is the only species in this genus in North America. That's cool!

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Geometer Moth Larva

Geometer moths (click here for my images) are a large family of moths. They are called geometer moths because their larva were said, by ancient people, to be measuring the earth with their looping, inchworm like movements. There are more than 1,600 species of geometer moths in North America alone. So while I know this is a geometer larva, I don't know which one. This one was on the leaves of our day lilies in August.

Other common names for geometer larvae are measuring worms, inchworms, loopers and spanworms.

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A Dark Marbled Carpet Geometer Moth

Dysstroma citrata

I have searched the entire Internet and cannot find a photograph of the caterpillar from which this moth evolves. But I do know it is a geometer moth. They have unique body shapes, like you see here. This is also called a northern marbled carpet moth. Click here for more info.

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White Geometer

Family Geometridae

We don’t know which geometer moth this is. There are very faint lines running across all of the wings. Geometer moths come in many colors and are identified by their shape. I usually find geometer moths or sphinx moths here and in New Hampshire. Geometer moth larvae are called measuringworms, inchworms, loopers and spanworms. "Geometer" refers to the measuring way the larvae move — it looks like they are measuring things as they loop when they move. Looping describes the motion inchworms make of bringing their rear parts up to meet their front parts and then moving their front parts out forward.. Geometers are found all over the world.

We found this moth as we left the Willoughby Bog on July 31, 2010, in Westmore, Vermont.

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