Black looper
The black looper is a dark grey-brown moth from Asia and Australia. Its caterpillar walks by making loops with its body, like it is measuring the leaf. It loves tea plants a little too much.
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Fun facts
It is a big pest in tea gardens, because its caterpillars eat the tea leaves.
The young caterpillar is pinkish green with black speckles, and later it turns all brown.
Birds and tiny wasps like to eat its eggs and caterpillars.
It is also called the black inch worm, because the caterpillar seems to measure things as it loops along.
Most asked questions about Black looper
?Is the black looper a pest?
Yes. Its caterpillars eat the leaves of tea plants and many other crops.
?What does the black looper caterpillar eat?
Leaves of many plants, including tea, coffee, guava and citrus.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Hyposidra talaca
- Named by
- Walker, 1860
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Geometridae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Geometridae
- Lives on
- Asia, Australia and Oceania
- Also known as
- Black inch worm
Where the facts come from
- Hyposidra talaca (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Jeevan Jose, Kerala, India. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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