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Psychidae, unidentified
4cm bagworm in small detritus tube, looks like sand. Caterpillar is brown with light brown mottling. Sighted 1st Jan 2023, afternoon, ceeping around potted plants as shown.
Domestic garden in Innisfail suburb, tropical Queensland. Biodiversity rich garden beside one with only grass. Found creeping around potted plants in the afternoon, not seen eating. More gregarious than most tube caterpillars I’ve seen.
Spotted on Jan 1, 2023
Submitted on Jan 1, 2023
3 Comments
Hi again BP..
If you're keen you might get a match on this page. Identifying the caterpillars of Psychidae mostly involves the patterns on the head and first few segments. You would need to then confirm the likely case type and presence in Innisfail, Qld.
My guess here is Lepidoscia species.
Good luck. ;-)
Please consider adding this lovely spotting to the Animal Architecture mission at http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/8082...
Hi there,
I thought you might need a little help with this one. Firstly, I have only been with Project Noah for a few months. So I am not an expert, but Maybe I can get you started in the right direction. The caterpillar you have here is the larva of a moth which is known by the Common Name "Bagworm Moth". Sometimes it is just called "Bagmoth" or "Bagworm". I can see why you called it a Tube Caterpillar, but as far as I know that is not the name used for this species. So you might want to edit your spotting to show one of the common names I've mentioned. Then, if we turn to the scientific name, this moth belongs to the Family "Psychidae" and if we cannot find the exact Genus and Species, we should call it "Unidentified Psychidae". So, when you are editing, I suggest you put that in the box for the Scientific Name. I think you should also change "tube caterpillar" in your Description to "Bagworm". The rest of your Description and your Habitat looks just fine. If you look in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagworm_mo..., you will get plenty of scientific information about this kind of moth and then you could put this link in the Wikipedia box under "Add a Reference" when you are in edit mode. That should tidy up your spotting and make it look more complete. I hope that helps a little. John B.