Small smoke sack carrier

Small smoke sack carrier
	Small smoke sack carrier ( Psyche casta ), male
Systematics
Class :	Insects (Insecta)
Order :	Butterflies (Lepidoptera)
Family :	Real sack carriers (Psychidae)
Subfamily :	Psychinae
Type :	Small smoke sack carrier
Scientific name
	Psyche casta
	( Pallas , 1767)

Newly hatched female moth

Caterpillar of the small smoke sack carrier with a web sack

Web sack on a leaf

newly hatched caterpillars on their mother's web sack

newly hatched caterpillar

The small smoke sack carrier ( Psyche casta ) is one of the thirty or so species of real sack carrier found in Central Europe . As is typical for this family, the small sack carrier has no female capable of flying and belongs to the moths .

Occurrence

The small smoke sack carrier is common both in forests and in open terrain. The webbing sack can be found on house walls, trunks and branches.

Caterpillars

The caterpillars live in a webbing sack that is covered with plant stalks. They feed on different plants.

male

The males have hairy, brown metallic shiny wings with a wingspan of 10 to 14 mm.

female

The females are wingless but have well developed legs. They have a length of 4 to 5 mm. The maggot-shaped body is yellowish or light brown, except for a few dark brown back plates. The female never leaves the web sack.

Way of life

The flight time of the small smoke sack carrier lasts from May to July. To mate, the female partially pushes itself out of the protruding end of the webbing sack and waits there crookedly for the male. This is attracted by fragrance. After mating, the female lays her eggs in the sac and dies. The egg caterpillars hatch after a short time. When they leave their mother's web sack, they already carry their own web sack.

literature

Heiko Bellmann: The new Kosmos insect guide, Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co KG, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 978-3-440-07682-8 , ISBN 3-440-07682-2

Web links

Commons : Kleiner Rauch-Sackträger ( Psyche casta ) - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files