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Bagworm Moth
Unidentified Psychidae
15.4557, 119.922
Field Notes
Description:
Bagworm Moths are always a challenge for me because I know so little about them. For this reason, I have (in the past) tended to pay little attention to them, but since I have been participating in Project Noah, I have felt the need to try and improve my knowledge of these strange moths. It is an uphill struggle, but almost every time I spot one and take some pictures, I learn a little more. The moth shown here is no exception and I have learned, from seeing it this morning, something about how these moths move around in their habitat. Many of us have seen these moths make their way along the branch of a tree, perhaps just moving from one leaf to another and it takes an unbelievably long time to cover a distance of just a few inches. However, this lack of speed only applies to horizontal movement, what I saw today was vertical movement. This Bagworm had attached a silken thread to the coping stone at the top of a column on our perimeter wall and was descending, just like a spider, by feeding out the silk thread. When it reached the concrete flooring and perhaps didn't like it, it just went back up again - not quite so quickly, but still much faster than it can crawl. So I took some pictures - see Notes below.
Habitat:
I spotted this Bagworm Moth beside our front gate. I can't be sure exactly how it got so close to our gate because there are many possibilities. There are plants along the inside and outside of the wall, as well as pot plants and flower beds in the front yard and an overcrowded front garden, with a great variety of trees and flowers. All of this is within a short distance of the gate and I have often seen Bagworm Moths in the yard and the garden.
Notes:
When I looked at the photos on my laptop, I was disappointed because, being a terrible photographer, I had not captured the fine silk thread. It seems to be much finer than most spider silk and I would have needed to work out the best lighting angle to get some reflection from the silk. However, all was not lost, when I looked much closer (in some desperation), I saw just a hint of the silk in the third photo. So I cropped it and enlarged it some more (the fourth picture). If you look closely, the silk thread can be seen - another tiny bit of information about Bagworm Moths.
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