Psyche casta Mating

This is the text of an article Jody and I submitted to the Vermont Entomological Society. It was published in the fall/winter edition, #128, of the Society's newsletter, VES News. I have included more photos here than were in the original article.

Home of the female Psyche casta moth

On June 19, 2026, Jody and I drove around some of our favorite places for bugging in Barton. We ended up at May Pond, where there are fields and forest, and, of course, the pond. The brush scraped the car on the one track road down to the pond. We stopped to see if we could find any creatures on the alder and willow.  And we did: the home of a female Psyche casta moth, the common bagworm moth.

We have probably all found these everywhere. They are not native to North America, but they are certainly plentiful. The female is wingless. I’ve always wanted to see a wingless moth, but I never have. I have been reluctant to dissect their little houses of dry grass and disturb them.

We photographed the moth dry-grass house, plucked the leaf from the tree, and brought her home where I put her in a moth house. I thought that if there were eggs inside her house, perhaps I would be fortunate enough to see them eclose. However, as the days went on and nothing happened, I forgot that she was there.

Some of the dozen male moths trying to find the female.

But on June 29 at 6 AM, I went to the porch to check my moths and found at least a dozen very small brown moths fluttering feverishly around the moth enclosure. Being only half awake and having no early morning cognitive abilities, I was totally confused and went back inside my own house. The only thing that I could figure out in the moment was that the small brown moths were most likely male because of their antennae. Later, I suddenly remembered the moth inside the enclosure and quickly looked up the lifecycle of Psyche casta moths. Sure enough, the male bagworm moth is called to the female by her pheromones. I quickly went outside and opened the moth enclosure and waited to see what would happen.

Two male moths entered the enclosure. Then the female finally appeared! I had the time of my life photographing them and their experiences in there. After the males left the enclosure (after hours and hours of rest), I closed it up again. If there are eggs from this mating(s), they will be inside the grass house. They will overwinter there. Unfortunately, the female will die after laying eggs in her house. Hopefully the eggs will survive the winter on my porch, and I will watch them as they make cocoons and eclose next spring. I have read that they don't require any fancy food, only leaf litter. This was a great experience, even if it was for a non-native species.

Male moth

Female appears

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