Habrosyne scripta
In the current climate of lumping families
and splitting species, the former family Thyatiridae is currently included in
the Drepanidae. The two groups appear to a non-taxonomist to be very dissimilar
and it seems unfamiliar in the least to be listing Habrosyne as a drepanid.
The brown caterpillar is found in August and September feeding on the leaves
of Salmonberry Rubus spectabilis or Thimbleberry R. parviflora.
Often it pulls one leaf over another, and hides between the two. The caterpillar
has the rather attractive habit, shared with many notodontids, of holding the
last few segments of its body, including the anal claspers, up in the air. There
are one or two pairs of white spots behind the head. Although it is hard to
know what goes on inside the head of a tachinid fly, it seems not unreasonable
to speculate that these spots, situated just where a tachinid typically lays
its eggs, may serve to deceive a fly into believing that the caterpillar has
already been the victim of another fly.