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- This page contains pictures and information about Case Moths and Bag Moths that we found
in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
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 - Case Moth larva's case
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- Members in this family are known as Case Moths, Bagworms or Bag Moths.
The caterpillars are from small to large size. Most
species the caterpillars live in a mobile case. The case is made of silk and
plants materials or a few species mixed with grains of sand. Each species make case in different shapes. Most of them feed
on a variety of plants. When rest they stick the top opening on stem and hang
their bag vertically.
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- The case has two openings, one at the top and other at the bottom. The
caterpillar comes out from the top to feed and ejects the waste form the bottom
end. The bottom opening, which is smaller than the top opening, is also the
exit hatch for the emerging adult. We can sometimes see the empty pupal case
left at the bottom opening of the case. We also saw once the caterpillar came
out from the bottom end when its way was stuck at the top end.
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- Most Case Moth caterpillars are leaf miners when they are very small.
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- The Case Moth caterpillars may take several years before they come to the pupate stage.
So we need a lot of patient to rear the case moths. They pupate also within the
case. For most species in this family, female will not develop wings
and will never come out of the bag. It just waits for a winged male in her
bag.
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- The adult moths are small to medium size, we did not have any photo yet.
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- Leaf Case Moth, Leaf Bagworm
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Hyalarcta huebneri, subfamily Psychinae, 50mm in length.
Young Leaf Case Moth, 10mm length
- Leaf Case Moths are common in Brisbane eucalyptus
forest. They can be found on most kind of trees, including the Eucalyptus
and Acacia. The appearance of Leaf Case Moth's case can be extremely variable.
Most information about this case moth can be found in this page.
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- Ribbed Case Moth, Ribbed Bagworm
  - Hyalarcta nigrescens, subfamily Psychinae, bag length 50mm
- The bag was found hanging from gum tree leaf. Unlike other species in this
family, this Bag Moth caterpillars make their case with silk only, not using
any plant materials. All bags they made has the prominent longitudinal ribs.
More pictures and information can be found in this page.
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- Saunders' Case Moths, Large Bagworm
  - Metura elongatus, subfamily Psychinae, case length 90mm
- We found the case moth caterpillar feeding on our palm tree. We have kept
it for a few weeks. It feeds at evening everyday. When disturbed it
will retreat back into its bag. It is a
large caterpillar with 10mm in cross diameter. It body is orange-brown in
colour with black eyes pattern on its thorax. We will keep it until it
turn into a moth. Please come back to this page later to see if it has turn
into a moth. For more pictures and information please also visit this page.
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- Faggot Case Moth
  - Clania ignobilis, subfamily
Psychinae, case length 40mm
- This species makes case same as the species above except one or two
of their sticks used are much longer then the other. Click here
for more information and pictures.
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- Stick Case Moth
 
- Clania lewinii (former Clania tenuis), subfamily Psychinae, case length 45mm,
young case length 20mm
- This Case Moths uses sticks of similar size attached in parallel
around its silk case. We found this Case moth bag attached to a large Gum tree
trunk. The caterpillar live inside the case. They make case with sticks of
similar length. Please visit this page for
more details.
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- Cone Case Moth
 - Lepidoscia sp. case length 20mm
- This caterpillar builds bag in narrow cone shape, covered with small prices
of plant materials. We found them on small gum trees during early summer in Karawatha
Forest. Please also visit this page.
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- Unknown Case Moth
 - ? sp.
- Margaret Owen in Western Australia send us the about picture. We have never
seen this case moth in Brisbane.
 - On Aug 2007 we found a mini version of the bag in Karawatha Forest. It was
less than 10mm in length, also found on gum leaf.
 - May 2005
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- Leaf Case Moth feeds on Wattle
 - ?sp., Bag length 30mm
- Pictures were taken in Karawatha Forest during mid summer.
 - Bag length 15mm
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Case Moth Caterpillar attacked by Ichneumon Wasp
 - Case 50mm in length
- Living in the case does not guarantee safety. In early spring we
found this case moth caterpillar (Leaf Case Moth)
attacked by a Ichneumon
Wasp on a Acacia tree. Although the caterpillar was
protected by its case bag, it seemed it was useless to prevent the attack from
the wasp. We saw the caterpillar head come out a few times try to get rid of
the wasp but no use either. The wasp kept on punching her long ovipositor into
the case bag for over halve an hour.
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- Reference:
- 1. Insects of Australia and New Zealand - R. J. Tillyard, Angus
& Robertson, Ltd, Sydney, 1926, p435.
- 2. Moths
of Australia - I. F. B. Common, Melbourne University Press, 1990,
p174.
- 3. Insects
of Australia - CSIRO, Division of Entomology, Melbourne University
Press, 2nd Edition 1991, p848.
- 4. PSYCHIDAE
of Australia - Caterpillars
of Australian Moths - Don Herbison-Evans & Stella Crossley, 2007.
- 5. Case moths, bag moths or bagworms - Chris Burwell, Queensland Museum, 2006.
[ Up ] [ Common Leaf Case Moth ] [ Ribbed Case Moth ] [ Large Bagworm ] [ Faggot Case Moth ] [ Stick Case Moth ] [ Cone Case Moth ]
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