Emerald moth

This was an exciting spotting for me. The postings by PNoah members of all kinds of really interesting caterpillars have fascinated me, but I figured my spottings would be of the more mundane varieties. Then I found this one: the caterpillar of an Emerald moth. Also known as the camouflaged looper, the wavy-lined emerald moth caterpillar covers its body with fragments of whatever plant it is on to camouflage itself as it feeds. The wavy-lined emerald moth is the only widespread species to do this, but from the US state of Maryland southwards, other Synchlora species are also present and use camouflage, so the only way to achieve a definitive caterpillar ID is to raise it to adulthood to see the moth.