Pale Beauty (NPS Catoctin Mountain Park Butterflies and Moths)

Pale Beauty

Campaea perlata

Summary ⁵

The Pale Beauty (Campaea perlata) is a species of moth in the family Geometridae. The average wingspan is about 28–51 mm, and the female tends to be much larger than the male.

Habitat ⁶

Widespread in forested and shrubby habitats.

Life cycle ⁷

Known as the fringed looper, the caterpillar has, as the name suggests, short, hair-like fringes along the ventral margin; when apresssed close to a branch, the fringes help break the outline of the body and make the larva nearly invisible (see Ives & Wong 1988). The caterpillars overwinter in the third or fourth instar (McGuffin 1981), likely exposed on bark and branches. Adults often flush out of shrubby understory during the day, but are primarily nocturnal and come to lights. At northern latitudes where nights are very short or absent during the flight period, adults are diurnal (McGuffin 1981). One of our most common and conspicuous geometrids.

Sources and Credits

More Info

Range Map

iNat Map

‹ › ×

Pale Beauty

Summary 5

Habitat 6

Life cycle 7