The Mysterious Crawling Cocoon
One of the joys of my life in Rio is the beautiful apartment that we have been renting for the last 2 years. It is in quite an old building with 3 stories and we are lucky enough to have the top floor which includes an incredible roof terrace with an even more incredible view (sorry, this is not meant to sound like bragging – but if you’ve got something nice, it’s good to appreciate it right?).
Lucky me – an ever-changing view that never fails to impress.
As well as the views, having the outside space also gives me the chance to grow some plants. People who follow the Eat Rio Facebook page may have seen that not so long ago my little jabuticaba tree delivered its first fruit.
A proud moment – my little jabuticaba tree’s first fruit! To see what a fully grown tree looks like, click here!
Well a few days ago, I discovered something else nestled amongst the branches of my jabuticaba tree. Something altogether less appetising.
Six months or so ago I had been watering the little tree when I noticed something hanging from one of the lower branches. I could see that it wasn’t exactly part of the tree, but it was also clearly organic and looked a bit like one of those little wasps nests you see sometimes. I guess I didn’t have much desire to mess with it as I left it alone and promptly forgot all about it. Until last weekend…
On Sunday I was checking to see if any more fruit had appeared when I saw the weird little nest thing again. I decided that after all this time the wasps or termites or whatever had obviously abandoned it, so I carefully picked the little branch from which the nest was hanging so I could show Mrs Eat Rio.
Now that it was away from all the other branches and leaves, I could see that the whole ‘nest’ was about 10cm (4 inches) long and wrapped in silk. A cocoon perhaps? Or some terrifying spider’s lair?
It was a strange looking thing – from above you could see that whatever had constructed this thing had broken off little twigs to form a structure that had been attached to the main branch with more silk.
See the little twigs at the top? Could a caterpillar do that?
Pretty cool right? At this point my money was on a caterpillar, though judging by the size of cocoon, it must have been a big one! Either way, seeing as it had been hanging off the tree outside for months and months it was pretty clear that whatever had made this thing was either long gone or dead.
After a while Mrs Eat Rio went off to do something else and I put the cocoon down on the table and went back up to the roof to water the rest of the plants. I forgot all about the cocoon… until the next morning.
Gone! This was where I had left the cocoon. And this was all that was left of it.
Uh-oh. Apart from a few fragments of leaf and some things that looked remarkably like peppercorns, there was no sign of the cocoon. What had I brought into our house? And more importantly, where was it now?
Let’s just say that Mrs Eat Rio was less than thrilled with the news. We searched every room in the house, without knowing exactly what were were looking for but with a growing suspicion that whatever it was would be utterly terrifying. In situations such as these, the only thing worse than finding the unknown awful thing is not finding it.
We didn’t find it, so we decided for sanity’s sake to agree that a beautiful butterfly had hatched over night and flown out of the open window, leaving just a few little mementos of its stay. Fine.
Except that yesterday morning I found it!
I found the cocoon hanging (yes, hanging) from the underside of a wooden chair we have in the corner of the room.
Now let’s look at the evidence. This thing had been hanging off a tree, outside in the wind and rain and sun for months. I brought it inside and it appeared to be utterly inert, but sometime in the next 24 hours it somehow moved 3 metres across the room and tied itself onto the bottom of a chair in such a way that was hanging, suspended off the ground. Oh yeah, and it likes to leave peppercorns wherever it goes. Can a caterpillar in a cocoon do that? I always thought that once caterpillars go into their cocoons, they were utterly immobile until they hatched out. Surely they can’t go marching across rooms and hanging themselves from chairs?
For the moment (under formal protest from Mrs Eat Rio) I’m keeping it in an old ice cream tub with some holes punched in the lid. Does anyone know what this is? Have I done the equivalent of bringing a mogwai into the house?
**UPDATE!**
Top creepy-crawly detective marks to Amanda for identifying my mystery guest. It is a [shudder] ‘Bagworm’ (Oiketicus kirbyi), a serious pest in some parts of Central and South America. Eventually it turns into a very ugly moth.
I have no idea what it is, but this post sounded like the beginning of a Stephen King book. You know how they start out rather innocently, with something slightly strange going on……and then all hell breaks loose.
Let’s see what happens Phil – hopefully I live to tell the end of the tale! ;)
Darn, a few minutes after reading this I received a phone call and the person on the other end of the line said “you have 7 days”. And adding insult to injury it is a cheapo curse as the call was collect. Thanks alot Tom!
Wait wait, now that is a reference to ‘The Ring’ right? I watched it (the original Japanese version, naturally) ages ago and found it so terrifying that I suppressed almost all details from my memory… :-/
Yep, a reference to ‘The Ring’ (the Westernized version, naturally).
And now to refresh your memory:
Thanks Gritty… That’s not exactly how I remembered it! ;)
OMG. I’m scared.
That is the creepiest thing I have ever heard of!
I hope you find out what it is and post it, just so I can sleep again! :)
It is a bit creepy isn’t it?! I spent some time last night searching the web for various different types of cocoons or other insects that cover themselves in sticks and after about 20 minutes I was so freaked out I had to stop. There are some nasty things out there… I’m still clinging to the hope that a beautiful butterfly will emerge…
You know, I live in Australia and hardly any animal scares me anymore. I actually fished a blue-ringed octopus last week but your account of the Mysterious Crawling Cocoon was scarier. Kudos on the suspense :D
Unti I remember I’ve seen them before and I think what you have is a moth cocoon (mariposa). I think they are called ‘bicho do cesto’ in that stage exactly because they are mobile (by the way I bet it disposed of all those peppercorns to make it lighter to move) . I did a quick search and found it easy :) the translator in me needed to know the scientific name, so this particular one is the OIKETICUS KIRBY – cool name!
Still wondering why you have so many moths around the house?
P.s.: Blue-ringed octopus is one of the most poisonous marine animals in the world (and I got pics to prove I fished one!)
Amanda does it again! Legend! :)
Ah jeez, now that I know what it is, I think I will politely invite it to leave via the window… Urgh… And then I’m going to have a very long shower [shudder].
Man, the Blue-ringed octopus looks amazing! So pretty. It being the most poisonous animal in the sea and all, I’m guess you didn’t make it into crispy octopus rings? ;)
The blue-ringed octopus looks pretty cool but is it as awesome as the mantis shrimp? :)
Ha ha ha! Awesome link! “These are my murder sticks. There are many like it, but these ones are mine” :D
hahaha the mantis shrimp is indeed awesome! And apparently lives in Australia as well. Oh joy. I want the t-shirt now.
But I’m sorry, nothing compares to a 10cm octopus that pulsates – that’s right- pulsates bright blue rings just to let you know to stay far far away. And it is kindly telling you so, very politely, minding its own business, because in reality it carries enough venom to kill – KILL- 26 humans in minutes.
26. Humans. In Minutes. True story.
You should have seen us when this tiny little octopus stuck to our bait started pulsating its blue rings! You would have thought Godzilla himself had come out of the ocean to eat us!
It’s beak can penetrate wetsuits;
there is no known antidote for its venom;
I will let the oatmeal know. Maybe they can make me a t-shirt as well :P
P.s.: sorry Tom, no crispy octopus rings; I think I was paralysed just by looking at it! And that is one ugly moth – the female is wingless and lives in the cocoon though, hence why it was moving around.
Not even a fish that sends dark stripes down its body to hypnotize its prey?
http://thedoghousediaries.com/5076
No, I agree, the octopus is really cool. Hey, if you get a t-shirt, maybe I can get one too, as an introduction fee, you know? :)
Leave it to the female moth to be wingless and hence wander around the house so to scrutinized the premises. I bet you she is already complaining about lack of ingredients in the pantry, or crumpled pillows.
:-)
Anyway, Oiketicus Kirby appears to be the Mexican Jumping Bean’s overweight cousin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_jumping_bean
The link in my previous comment is very discrete (i.e., I only found it because I knew I’d put it there) so here’s the link for easy reference:
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/mantis_shrimp
There you go Andrew – I’ve boldened it up for you with some ‘bold’ tags :)
Argh, I am trying to say that I added a < and then a b and then a >
Cheers, Tom! I always forget which ones I’m allowed to use in comments.
cool man! your storys are the best!
Showwww tom, suas historias sao otimas!!!! hahahaha e o que você vai fazer com esse bichao feio?
bem ou mal.. é um animal não é?
abraços! rs
Hee hee, those things give me the creeps! :-0 Mas não o matei – coloquei bem longe de minha casa. Hoje ele provavelmente tem netos! rs
So, I was cleaning out my inbox and I came across this. I hadn’t read it.; It had just gotten buried. (I didn’t realize that I’ve been reading your blog for at least 2 years.)
So, HOW did the moth move around your room like that? Have you see anymore move from spot to spot? Did you see the final product?
Hi Angela – urgh, this whole episode still gives me the creeps! My mum asked about it the other day when she was visiting and I realised I had been repressing the memory for a while! If you trawl through the comments above you’ll see that Amanda managed to identify the beast – its Latin name is Oiketicus kirbyi and you can see more about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oiketicus_kirbyi. You can even see it in live action here
Right, I’m off to have a shower and banish this memory once again ;)
Hi!! I discovered one of these, myself, hanging from a lime tree in my in-laws garden in Pocos de Caldas, Minas Gerais, Brasil. I was as baffled as you were to it’s identity, but your post has shed light on what it is, and I have now updated my ProjectNoah page with pics, and details from Wikipedia. I am hoping that I will be able to catch it emerging from it’s pupae, but it is fascinating watching it crawling around and eating leaves from the bush as it does so! Thanks for providing the info!!
Dave
Hi Dave! Great to hear from you and that you’ve also had a run-in with these creepy/interesting (depending on your viewpoint! ;) ) creatures. Fingers crossed you get to see the end result!
I found a small version of what this seems to be, and was esp convinced when I watch the video you posted. The one I’ve found is in Charleston, SC though- we do have a SubTropical climate but it seems far for this little guy to get from Mexico or the Caribbean!
Did you ever figure this out? I have a cocoon that has moved three times!!!!!! So strange
Hi Kendall, I’m afraid we did figure it out, yes :-/ it’s a ‘Bagworm’ (Oiketicus kirbyi). If you Google the Latin name you’ll find out all about this icky insect! :)
Que tal, ha aparecido uno de estos bajo la silla del patio en Panamá, después de un rato de discutir sobre que se trataba sin tocarlo obviamente le he tomado una foto y he hecho una búsqueda que me trajo hasta aquí para descubrir de que se trataba la tan misteriosa bolsita. Os agradezco!