Chickweed Geometer

Adults typically rest with wings held flat out to the sides. Forewings are pointed and dull yellow; each has a pinkish or reddish spot near the center of the wing. Two pinkish or reddish bands parallel the edges of the wings; in the typical resting posture, the bands on the forewings appear continuous with the bands on the hindwings. The antennae of males are featherlike; those of females are threadlike.

Larvae are slender, but thickened and rough at the first abdominal segment. Variable in color, with green and white stripes or checkered and mottled with colors including red. Geometers (“earth measurers”) are the familiar “inchworms” that hump their backs (forming a “loop”) when they move the rear set of legs up to the front set, before moving the front set forward for the next “step.”