The first of the bagworms from Pecket Well emerged this morning. I'm assuming this is a female and that the appendage extending from her rear end is to "call" for mates. I couldn't tell if it was the breeze coming through my window that was making the tassel on the end waft around or whether she herself was waving it. Never seen anything quite like it before!
10 comments:
Outstanding , Im stumped as to what it is.... pheromone antena..
Send it to Harry see if he knows...
I did just that and he says it's "a well marked female" so your pheromone antenna theory looks good. Let's see what pops out of the other cases.
Have you kept the empty case..??
No, I put the case with the moth still on it outside yesterday - why do you want it/some?
If you have it /them..please keep them for me ta.
BTW..nice shot with female on the discarded case....
From Charlie Fletcher...Crikey, what a fabulous photo!! The odd structure must be the ovipositor. I think that quite a few psychids have large ovipositors. I had a look at MBGBI and it doesn’t say a lot for this species but for Taleporia tubulosa it says “ovipositor extensile”. Looking at pictures of the species with wingless females, they are often showed with the ovipositors sticking out, but I can’t see any like this for winged females such as D. laichartingella.
From Bri......Amazing ,Havent seen that before,yes looks like a Calling Female ?bet that hasnt been seen often,Cracking pics.regards Bri.
Thanks for all your comments, it's a great advert for rearing your own moths!
Went to the central library in Halifax to have a look at MBGBI but it's closed on Wednesdays due to cutbacks :-(
Will save the cases for you Andy, three left now.
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