A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
It looks like a cocoon, however, the caterpillar puts part of its body out and eats the leaf where the cocoon is hanging.
Garden - northeast Brazil
You definitely should ;-)!! There is still a lot to detect and enjoy! Please, note that my ID is already 1 year old, so youcan find morein the meanwhile. I think Oiketicus cf. kirbyi is safe as an ID.
Wow! Thanks @bayucca for all this precious information. I really thought this was a cocoon. And thanks for all the info on other post as well. I haven't checked project noah as much as I should.
Psychidae, Oiketicus sp., could be Oiketicus kirbyi, a wellknown pest. But you have to verify the genus and species for Brazil! It is actually not really the cocoon, but a bag. And what you see in #2 is not a caterpillar, but the adult female, flightless and without antennae and wings.
Interesting facts: The female has no antennae and no wings, does not leave the bag (!), is neotenic (also known from the Axolotl), meaning the fertilization occurs in the larval-like (but adult) stage of the female (!) by the male which opens the female's bag for mating. The female at the end is very large due to the mass of eggs (some thousands!). At the end the female drops to the ground and dies, the bag and the eggs remains attached on a leaf or little branch. Just some short info about an exciting, strange and complex behaviour!
Some info about agricultural importance of this moth:
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/es...
Spotted on Jul 21, 2013
Submitted on Jul 24, 2013
+0
