What Is That BUG?

Ok this is kind of off the usual topic of conversation that I usually write about on here...but really.  It's just too odd not to share...

Yesterday was a beautiful Texas day.  Mid 80's.  Sun shining.

So I went outside to clean the poop off the porch. 

I'll write about that next.....long story...ok well not really a LONG story...but another story.

Anyway I was out there with a scrub brush, soap and water.  When I looked up and saw THIS!

Yeah,  creepy crawly.  Looks like a bunch of crumpled leaves.  But upon closer inspection....see the little caterpillar poking out of the end there?  Yeah.

At first I thought it was a cocoon and I was about to witness a butterfly emerging....but it just kinda crawled along dragging the cocoon behind it.  And I always thought that cocoons were attatched to something.  I've never heard of a traveling cocoon.  I looked around our porch some more and there were quite a few of them just creeping about.  So I called the hubby outside.  He figured that they might be kind of like hermit crabs and they live out of them and carry their homes around.  Well who ever heard of hermit caterpillars I ask you?!  So we decided to figure out what exactly these little critters were.
My husband was very scientific and mature.  He used Google.  Because Google knows all.  He searched for a pretty long time using searches like "caterpillar crawling with leaf shell" and "caterpillar crawling with cocoon"  and soon declared it a mystery.  So I too decided to be scientific and mature as well and Googled "Caterpillar Leaf Butt".  And Eureka!  I solved the mystery of the creepy crawly...

I found THIS site!  What's That Bug?  It's like a blog or something with user submitted photos of mysterious bugs and creepy crawly things.  You take a picture of a bug you can't identify and they will tell you what it is.  It's pretty amazing!  There are just so many bugs out there that honestly science hasn't identified them all yet.  But anyway I discovered that this my friends is a bagworm !  It is the caterpillar of a moth. It travels around in it's cocoon looking for food.  And when it's full it puptes and emerges as either a moth (if it's a dude) or a well...a mateable wingless moth I guess (if it's a chick).  They female can't fly so she just sits and waits for the male to show up (Sounds kind of familiar...typical men).   Then she lays the eggs in her cocoon and leaves...to die.  Yeah.

Anyway they have some great pictures.  Like this one:

Anyways...thanks for bearing with me while I nerded out on you.

The thing I love about my hubby as that he likes to learn as much as I do.  We both have that curiosity bug.  I hope that it will create a home full of learning and questions and a love for the quest for answers.  Family dinner filled with discussions on honey bees or dolphin speech patterns or something else equally as nerdy (don't get me started on bees ok.  Bees are cool.  Dave and I just put a NOVA documentary about bees on our Netflix Que....  yeah we're nerdy...we just try and keep most of it hidden away from the public...)