#lepidoscia

[rattyexplores]

Tiny Sydney Bagworms

These bagworms became quite familiar to me on my trip. Not sure about species, but I think they’re in the Lepidoscia genus, just based on cocoon design.

Unidentified, genus Lepidoscia (?)

18/03/23

[drhoz]

#2035 - Lepidoscia arctiella - Tower Casemoth

A case moth species found in all Australian states, on a variety of foodplants. Distinguished from other in the large genus by the cases, which are up to 35mm long, and constructed from tiers of short twigs or stems or cylindrical leaves, each cut to the same length.

The adults are black and brownish yellow - this one is very similar to artiella but isn't an exact match for the markings.

[drhoz]

#1810 - Lepidoscia sp - Case Moth

I’ve mentioned on a previous post about this genus that the adults are usually yellow-winged with dark brown stripes and bands, or mottled grey, and here’s an example of the latter.

Wellard, Perth.

[drhoz]

#1459 - Lepidoscia sp.

One of a genus of Psychid Case Moth caterpillars, with dozens of species in Australia, and more in other parts of the world, although most of the records on iNaturalist are here in Australia. I don’t know how closely that matches their actual distribution. There’s 350 known species of Case Moth in Australia, and going by the Australian Lepidoptera website, most of them are in this genus.

Psychids protect themselves with silken cases, often decorated and reinforced with twigs or dry leaf fragments, and in many species the adult females are wingless, and never leave the case. In at least one, the eggs never leave the mother, either, and her young chew their way out of her as well as the house. 

I don’t have much information on the genus, specifically - most of the species I’ve found images of are yellow-winged with dark brown stripes and bands, or mottled grey, as adults, but there’s next to no information on diet. 

This particular one I found on my wife’s shoulder, in a wildlife reserve in Coolup, as we were admiring the orchids growing in dense tea-tree scrub. I put it back on the nearest tea-tree, since the lichen-covered trunk of the plant was a close match for the case, apparently covered in fragments of lichen.