HALFWAY UP A WOODY HEATHER STEM, I spied what appeared to be a caddisfly case. Nowhere near a pond, my suspicions were roused as this was too big a case to belong to a land caddis. I placed it on a stone H and waited.
A few minutes later, a small black head peeked out of the open end of the tube. It belonged to a caterpillar. It turns out that I had bagged a bagworm, an insect with a very interesting and surprising life-cycle, particularly given its uninspiring name.
The dusky sweep (Acanthopsyche atra) is one of 20 species of micro-moth that belong to the Psychidae family, or bagworms. These creatures, as their name implies, live for at least part of their life in a 'bag' or case.
It's very much like the case of a caddisfly larva: pieces of plant material - usually lichen, bark fragments, stems or seeds are sewn together to form a protective shroud in which the vulnerable caterpillar lives.
This story is from the August 2022 edition of BBC Wildlife.
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This story is from the August 2022 edition of BBC Wildlife.
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