Ilia underwing caterpillar, Home

I managed to get a long-ish bike ride in today, and on my way up the hill towards home, I noticed something on the road... something that looked like an odd stick. Now, sticks on the road are nothing new, but this one gave me pause, to say nothing of piquing my curiosity. Sure enough, it was not a scrap of wood but rather a two-inch-long caterpillar that resembled a lichen-encrusted branch. I wasn't exactly sure of its identity, so I emptied the plastic water bottle I was carrying—I didn't have any collecting jars in my backpack—coaxed it inside, and finished my ride. Coming up with an identification was, as usual, arduous and involved a lot of page turning in two David-Wagner-authored field guides. Eventually, however, I arrived at an ID I was confident in and dubbed the proto-lepidopteran Catocala ilia, the well-camouflaged larva of the Ilia Underwing moth. My taxonomic job completed, I carried the caterpillar across the street and placed it on the branch of an oak to dine and continue its development. With any luck, I'd be seeing the Ilia in moth form in August.