Our Friend, Inchy!

September 26, 2013 11:07 AM

Can you identify this worm?

Possibly relevant facts:
* He is at most a few centimeters long
* He was found inside an office in San Francisco
* There is construction going on outside this office
* He does not move very far or very fast
* He moves by inching, which is to say, scrunching up and flattening out
* He definitely waves his head around a lot
* His butt seems sticky
* Sometimes he seems to hang from some silk or something in midair

posted by dame to Pets & Animals (4 answers total)

Best answer: Hard to say which variety, but inchworms are typically the larva stage of (har, har) Geometer moths. Get it? Because they measure stuff as they go.

Anyway, there are many species of Geometrids. Your pic is a bit fuzzy to say which one for sure. The west coast members of the Bug Brigade might know, or you could try the helpful folks at whatsthatbug.com if folks come up dry here.
posted by jquinby at 11:26 AM on September 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: So just a moth baby. Thanks!
posted by dame at 1:34 PM on September 26, 2013

That's interesting. We are in Victoria BC (which has a year-round climate similar to SF) and saw a similar inchworm.
posted by KokuRyu at 3:38 PM on September 26, 2013

I've seen similar little guys just before an outbreak of pantry moths.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:56 AM on September 27, 2013