Brave Little Bagworm

I found a  bag worm that had dropped out of a cedar tree onto a table on our deck. After watching it struggle on the table's edge, I moved it onto several leaves for security and food. At one point it suddenly lost its grip and was caught by a silk safety line until climbing back up to the leaf.  You can follow its journey in this Youtube video. 

The evergreen bagworm moth is Thyridopteryx ephemeraeformis--try saying that fast three times!  It is in the Psychidae family of bagworm moths.  The MDC Discover Nature Field Guide describes it here.

"Adult male evergreen bagworm moths are furry and look a lot like blackish bees with long, tapering abdomen tips. They have comblike antennae and usually have clear wings (which is very unmothlike), since they lose most of their wing scales as they squeeze out of their larval cases. Adult females lack wings and antennae; they look a lot like caterpillars or maggots and usually do not leave their bags."

Hanging by a thread

The larva will go through seven instars and the last one will be an inch long.  "Bagworm larvae eat the leaves and soft stems of many types of trees and shrubs, including evergreens. In Missouri, they are most commonly noticed on eastern red cedar and on the various junipers and arborvitaes used in landscaping."

MDC goes on to say, "The eggs, caterpillars, and adult females don’t leave their protective bags or even fully leave their pupal casing, which complicates matters slightly: The males must seek out the females. Receptive females emit pheromones (scents that attract the opposite sex), and a male, finding a female’s bagworm bag, must extend and poke his abdomen into the female’s case in order to mate with her. The female deposits her hundreds of eggs into her own bag and dies within a few days. If she doesn’t drop onto the ground when she dies, her dried-up body may remain with the eggs until they hatch in late spring the following year."

This give a whole new meaning to the term "bag lady."

More detailed information can be found at the University of Florida Entomology.