Page 339 - The Book of Caterpillars: A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred Species From Around the World

MOTH CATERPILLARS

FAMILY Drepanidae
DISTRIBUTION From Europe to the Urals, Asia Minor, and the Caspian Sea
HABITAT Forests, hedgerows, parks, and gardens
HOST PLANTS Oak, including Pedunculate Oak (Quercus robur), Sessile Oak
(Quercus petraea), and Downy Oak (Quercus pubescens)
NOTE Caterpillar that adopts a characteristic hook-tip, arched pose
CONSERVATION STATUS Not evaluated, but common throughout most of its range

ADULT WINGSPAN
⅞–1⅜ in (22–35 mm)

CATERPILLAR LENGTH
⅞–1 in (22–25 mm)
WATSONALLA BINARIA
OAK HOOK-TIP 337

(HUFNAGEL, 1767)

The Oak Hook-tip caterpillar ecloses from oval eggs that are
initially green but turn red before hatching and are laid on the
leaf edge. It lives openly and rests with its head and its tail end
raised in the usual hook-tip manner, often with the head held Actual size
high, the front end arched, and the tail spike pointing upward.
The caterpillars are present from June to October. The pale
brown pupa, which has a waxy bloom, is formed in a whitish,
mesh-like cocoon within a folded leaf or leaves drawn together
and overwinters there.

The species has two broods annually, with adults flying in The Oak Hook-tip caterpillar is light brown,
May and June—mainly at night, although males also fly light orange brown, or darker brown, with a
double-pointed tubercle on the back near the
by day. Several related species have caterpillars similar to the peaked, swollen front end. It has a paler, often
Oak Hook-tip. The Spiny Hook-tip caterpillar (Watsonalla whitish but sometimes yellowish, elongated
saddle-mark along the back, which extends as
uncinula), which occurs in southern Europe where the two two whitish, sometimes dark-edged diverging
lines toward both the head and hind end,
species may overlap, is almost identical, and the adults are so which is formed into a spike.
similar that reliable identi cation is only possible by examination

of the genitalia.