2019 June 26 morning

 

    Jeremy Tatum writes:  Yesterday I visited the nature house at Goldstream Park.   Rather slim pickings there.  There were two rather worn and unidentified geometrine moths and a fairly spectacular cranefly out of reach of my camera.  The only moth within camera reach was a worn Idaea dimidiata  – a species that can be found almost anywhere without driving to Goldstream Park!   At the Swan Lake nature house there were two Sicya croceata and one Eulithis xylina, both well out of camera reach.

 

Idaea dimidiata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jeremy Tatum

 

   Jeremy continues:   Today, June 26, I had one of the most interesting moth experiences I have had for a long time.  On June I found, on Reed Canary Grass at Rithet’s Bog, the creature shown on June 11 and repeated below.  Inside the case, made of grass fragments, is a caterpillar, part of which can be seen sticking out of the right hand side of the case.  This is, a believe, what is called a bagworm, and I believe the species is Psyche casta.  The male of the species is a small moth with bipectinate antennae and black wings.  The female is wingless and stays inside her case.

 

Psyche casta (Lep.: Psychidae)  Jeremy Tatum

 

      Shortly after the above photograph was taken, the caterpillar disappeared inside the case, and remained motionless for several days, after which some part of a moth (I couldn’t see it very well) appeared at the rear end of the case.  It evidently was a female.  I kept her in a sealed plastic box, not being quite sure what to do.

    This morning, June 26, I just happened to open the box for a few minutes.   Within minutes two small black moths, of a sort I had never seen before, appeared  fluttering outside my apartment window.  The window was open for about two inches, and one of the moths flew though this into my apartment, and went straight for the plastic box and started to copulate with the female.  I managed to get a couple of not-very-good photographs.  In the photographs, he is sitting at the rear end of the case.  This is the most exciting moth thing I have seen for a long time.

Psyche casta (Lep.: Psychidae)  Jeremy Tatum

Psyche casta (Lep.: Psychidae)  Jeremy Tatum