Hi all,
I have been amazed by this little architect for quite some time already. Like this below..
Think its a bagworm species. Some info that i quoted:
Bagworms are a group of highly specialized lepidopterans belonging to the family Psychidae and exhibit extreme development of sexual dimorphism. Males are winged whereas females lack functional appendages. Larvae of both males and females, soon after hatching from the eggs climb up to the top of their host plants in order to have an access to the soft and palatable tips of the growing shoots. They construct a small but tough bag of silk of either cylindrical or conical shape and glue small fragments of plant tissues around their cases. Larvae always keep their body inside the cases. While moving about, their head and thorax are protruded out so that they move forward on their thoracic legs dragging the case behind them, which is gripped by hooks on the abdominal prolegs. When taking rest, the rims of the cases remain attached to a twig by means of silken thread so that the cases hang vertically with both their openings remaining closed.
The characteristic sexual dimorphism, fascinating gait and peculiar case architecture collectively make each individual bagworm a biological curiosity. The bagworm larva grows in size until the room inside its case becomes insufficient to accommodate it. Eventually it expands the size of its case by discarding the older materials, such as thorns and/or twigs and attaches newer and bigger materials. Here, this phenomenon is referred to as case-renovation behaviour.
When the larva realizes that the space inside the case is not optimal, it cuts optimum-sized thorns or twigs and glues it to the rim of the bag at around 45° inclination. When the required number of thorns/twigs have been cut and glued, the larva bites away the wall of the bag along the length of one of the old thorns/twigs which is cut loose and eventually discarded. The new thorn/twig is pulled into its place to fill the slit and glued along the whole length with fresh silk.
I had the chance to observe one of them renovating its bag and shot some pics to share. This bag construction is made of vertical branches..
it climbs up a branch of its choice..
and it starts chewing on one end..
till it chews through the branch..
Amazingly, it hangs onto the stable branch via a silk thread while it rotates the chewed off branch to start chewing off the other end to get the length it requires..
I have been amazed by this little architect for quite some time already. Like this below..
Think its a bagworm species. Some info that i quoted:
Bagworms are a group of highly specialized lepidopterans belonging to the family Psychidae and exhibit extreme development of sexual dimorphism. Males are winged whereas females lack functional appendages. Larvae of both males and females, soon after hatching from the eggs climb up to the top of their host plants in order to have an access to the soft and palatable tips of the growing shoots. They construct a small but tough bag of silk of either cylindrical or conical shape and glue small fragments of plant tissues around their cases. Larvae always keep their body inside the cases. While moving about, their head and thorax are protruded out so that they move forward on their thoracic legs dragging the case behind them, which is gripped by hooks on the abdominal prolegs. When taking rest, the rims of the cases remain attached to a twig by means of silken thread so that the cases hang vertically with both their openings remaining closed.
The characteristic sexual dimorphism, fascinating gait and peculiar case architecture collectively make each individual bagworm a biological curiosity. The bagworm larva grows in size until the room inside its case becomes insufficient to accommodate it. Eventually it expands the size of its case by discarding the older materials, such as thorns and/or twigs and attaches newer and bigger materials. Here, this phenomenon is referred to as case-renovation behaviour.
When the larva realizes that the space inside the case is not optimal, it cuts optimum-sized thorns or twigs and glues it to the rim of the bag at around 45° inclination. When the required number of thorns/twigs have been cut and glued, the larva bites away the wall of the bag along the length of one of the old thorns/twigs which is cut loose and eventually discarded. The new thorn/twig is pulled into its place to fill the slit and glued along the whole length with fresh silk.
I had the chance to observe one of them renovating its bag and shot some pics to share. This bag construction is made of vertical branches..
it climbs up a branch of its choice..
and it starts chewing on one end..
till it chews through the branch..
Amazingly, it hangs onto the stable branch via a silk thread while it rotates the chewed off branch to start chewing off the other end to get the length it requires..