Schizura unicornis

Unicorn Prominent

The caterpillar relies on a combination of its extraordinary shape with disruptive coloration to disguise the fact that it is a caterpillar. It feeds on willow, alder, apple or hawthorn from August to early October. When it has finished eating it drops to the ground and makes a flimsy cocoon amongst the ground litter. It stays in the cocoon, as a diapausing caterpillar, throughout the winter, transforming to a pupa in the spring. The adult moth wraps its wings around its body into a tight cylinder and is barely to be distinguished from a fragment of broken stick.