Bagworm

Unknown bug on my car
Location:  Central Ohio
August 10, 2010 8:06 am
Hi my name is Vernoica Pence and I live in Hilliard Ohio. I came home from work and found an unknown bug on my boyfriends car. I have never seen a bug like this ever and I am an outdoor person. I was hoping if you could tell me what kind of bug it is.
Veronica Pence

Hi Veronica,
We are going to give you the part of the response we just gave Michele who wrote in with a related Bagworm.  This is a Bagworm in the family Psychidae.  Bagworms are moth caterpillars that fashion a bag from the foliage of the plants they feed upon.  Bagworms will migrate away from the food plant to find a suitable place for pupation, and they pupate inside the bag.  The males of the species fly but the females are legless and wingless and do not leave the bag.  After mating, the eggs are laid inside the bag to begin a new generation.  We actually believe your species is the Evergreen Bagworm, Thyridopteryx ephemeraeformis, which you may read about on BugGuide.