Psychidae-Bagworms or psychos (Psychocentra millierei,...)

This tiny (about 5 mm - along the length of the wing) shaggy, with a luxurious mustache-radars, belongs, if not to the most ancient, then certainly to the most peculiar family of bag butterflies (Psychidae). Females of all species of this family are worm-like, wingless, with underdeveloped eyes, antennae, and often with reduced legs and mouthparts. Bagworm caterpillars make themselves a bag-like or cylindrical house-cover, weaving various parts of plants into it with a web, and sometimes other foreign particles (grains of sand, mollusk shells, etc.). This house is carried on itself (like caddisflies-the ancestors of butterflies), moving with the help of chest legs. In it and pupate. Male pupae are equipped with spikes that help them, before the butterfly leaves, to move out of the house. Male baggies (perhaps only them!) you can rightly call one-day butterflies, their life expectancy is usually only a few hours. They fly during the day, in calm weather, in the morning or in the evening, and are very numerous, but at the same time, as a rule, they remain unnoticed for us due to their size. The winged male actively searches for a house with a mature female, according to the pheromones released by her, and mates with her "blindly" by means of an elongated extendable copulatory apparatus. Hence the Latin name of the family: in Greek mythology, Psyche was forbidden to see the face of her beloved Cupid. The females of most species of sacks are selected from the house a few days after fertilization and, with the help of a long ovipositor, lay eggs inside their old shelter.

Pictured here is Psychocentra millierei (Laerts, 1879) - Miller's bagworm -
One of the little-known members of the family.
Late evening in the steppe on the bank of the Ural River, 25 km south of Kizilskoye settlement (Chelyabinsk region), May 19, 2007

Pictures:

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Beautiful baochka! I caught one species in the MO, but I haven't done it yet.

(about 5 mm-along the length of the wing)
This is the opposite of a large one. Mine is even smaller.

baggies are generally interesting I have 3 types, more and e saw. 2 caught at night, 1 type during the day in the number of about 5 pieces.

Epichnopterix plumella ([Denis & Schiffermüller], 1775)
Highlands of the Eastern Sayan Mountains, near the village of Mondy, Khulugaisha. Beginning of June 2012. h=2400. At these heights in the first days of June this year, there was still snow and there were no insects at all, only these baggies!


its biotope during the summer:


This post was edited by Konung-02.12.2012 11: 25

Bijugis bombycella (Denis & Schiffermuller, 1775)
June 13, 2012. Crimea, near the village of Krasnolesya, to the light.

Eumelasina pliginskii Kozhantshikov, endem of the Crimean , 1956
August 22, 2012. Crimea, Feodosia, Mount Tepe-Both. Photos in nature.
Many times I met covers of this species, I saw a butterfly for the first time. Until I cooked it, I thought it was cossida or brachodes.

Canephora unicolor (Hufnagel, 1766) - larva collected on 6 May 2013 Lozenska Mts. near Sofia, imago has emerged on 2 June 2013.

Pictures:

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Some of my Pachythelia villosella (Ochsenheimer, 1810) collected mostly in SW Bulgaria. It seems in SW Bulgaria is not rare species, here in Sofia I have found only bags of females and never males.

This post was edited by Viktor Gashtarov - 15.06.2013 15: 42

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Phalacropterix graslinella (Boisduval, 1852)
Omsk region, Krutinsky district, 31. V. 2013. I collected this copy. in a sphagnum swamp, and another one in the adjacent mixed grass meadow. Both copies. in flight. Moreover, both times I was sure that I was catching some interesting fluffy fly the butterfly hovers in one place and quickly flaps its wings, so much so that they are not visible, like a fly.
Butterfly:


Biotope:


This post was edited by Konung - 29.09.2013 20: 49

Sterrhopterix fusca (Haworth, 1809)
Omsk region, Krutinsky district, 23-24. VI. 2013, on light.

Canephora hirsuta (Poda, 1761)
Omsk region, Krutinsky district, ex-larva.

the same view as in the previous message. Omsk region, ex-larva, 8. VI. 2014

  Phalacropterix graslinella (Boisduval, 1852)
Omsk region, Krutinsky district, 31. V. 2013. I collected this copy. in a sphagnum swamp, and another one in the adjacent mixed grass meadow. Both copies. in flight. Moreover, both times I was sure that I was catching some interesting fluffy fly the butterfly hovers in one place and quickly flaps its wings, so much so that they are not visible, like a fly.

Svyatoslav, what exactly does the caterpillar eat? Not known? The fact is that yesterday I brought 2 geese and I want to feed them to try Ponmayu, of course, which is a little off topic
She's like

07.06.2014 Vladimir region, Petushinsky district, district, village Old Pools.

This post was edited by vasiliy-feoktistov - 08.06.2014 09: 43

Svyatoslav, what exactly does the caterpillar eat? Not known? The fact is that yesterday I brought 2 geese and I want to feed them to try Ponmayu, of course, which is a little off topic
She's like

07.06.2014 Vladimir region, Petushinsky district, district, village Old Pools.

it seems that hirsuta lives on different grassy areas. And this cover is more like Phalacropteryx graslinella. I haven't looked at her feed lines, but I think they've probably been studied...

This post was edited by Konung-08.06.2014 11: 12

it seems that hirsuta lives on different grassy areas. And this cover is more like Phalacropteryx graslinella. I haven't looked at her feed lines, but I think they've probably been studied...

Thank you.
Phalacropteryx graslinella I had in mind (in the photo one of the two yesterday's goose).
Wikikakia lists heather, blueberries, and lingonberries for it. I'm going to Narva today: I need to experiment.

Thank you.
Phalacropteryx graslinella I had in mind (in the photo one of the two yesterday's goose).
Wikikakia lists heather, blueberries, and lingonberries for it. I'm going to Narva today: I need to experiment.

Vasya give her a willow tree.
I have them eating willow.

Vasya give her a willow tree.
I have them eating willow.

such a feeling that everyone can eat willow at all ))

Vasya give her a willow tree.
I have them eating willow.

Andriukh, thank you
They really eat and shit like they should.
I've got half the town to cut for all those heather and blueberries, and there are plenty of willows near the house." Fallen stone from the soul

Eumeta sp., female
Caterpillar China, Yunnan, Longling, late June 2017, Zhuk leg. I was eating willow.
The butterfly appeared on October 12.

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butterfly is a beauty