"CASE" SOLVED!

JEEPERS, CREEPERS! Thursday night I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth and I noticed this piece of flat brown dirt moving across the counter top. Or was it a small piece of leaf being blown by the breeze. Was I that tired? DID THAT DIRT JUST MOVE? I swear I did a double take and shook my head like a cartoon character to make sure I saw what I thought I saw. Is this is a joke... who is pulling this leaf like thing on a string? Then it happened... a black head popped out. Then it started pulling itself across the counter in small jerking motions. THE HORROR! JOHN!!!!! GET IN HERE AND LOOK AT THIS. I captured the unusual teeny tiny beast and put it in a jar. A quick search on line by typing in the term "flat cocoon" and I had my answer. The really amazing website, WHAT'S THAT BUG? told me all I needed to know. It is a Case Bearing Moth Larva. A completely benign creature.

Come out come out.

I took many, many images and could never get in close enought to get a really sharp image. The casing looks like a piece of dried leaf... but then when I took a photo of it and zoomed in I noticed it looked like very fine sand. It is about 1/4" to 1/2" long and has 2 openings... one on each end. First it pops it's head out of one end then the other. The openings are so small, you can barely see them without the aide of the camera. It really is the wildest thing and we have spent way too much time watching it in the jar. Case closed.