On our last hike on the Wiley Trails, @Thomas_Llama picked up a hitchhiker on his clothes: this cute little inchworm (caterpillar of a geometer moth, family Geometridae):
#InsectThursday #inchworm #caterpillar #lepidoptera #Geometridae #insects
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@wplalonde @Thomas_Llama is *that* why they're called inchworms! (or was the moth named after the caterpillar?)
@wplalonde @Thomas_Llama I looked it up. The adults are named for the caterpillars.
@WizardOfDocs @Thomas_Llama I was just over at the Online Etymology Dictionary investigating this when you replied. 
But I'm a bit confused about the order of causation here, as etymonline dates "inchworm" to 1844, while Wikipedia gives the family name "Geometridae" an origin date of 1815 (while also mentioning they were named after the larval means of locomotion).
So it seems the adults are named after the caterpillars, but as "geometers," and the name "inchworm" came later. Right? 
@wplalonde @Thomas_Llama I guess?
I'm just glad I now know why they move like that
they don't have the middle legs most caterpillars do
