Unidentified Caddisfly at Molonglo River Reserve
Identification history
| Philanisus plebeius | 20 Aug 2020 | Alice | ||
| Trichoptera (order) | 20 Aug 2020 | Alice | ||
| Trichoptera (order) | 20 Aug 2020 | MichaelBedingfield | ||
| Unverified | 18 Aug 2020 | AlisonMilton |
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User's notes
Does anyone know what this is? It's aquatic. In a tidal pool I found what looked like twigs moving along the bottom of the pool. I brought one home and cut it open. Instead of finding an expected shell fish or crab, I found this caterpillar-like creature with long craw-like legs around the head. I have the specimen at home if anyone wants to examine it.
5 comments
Alice
wrote:
20 Aug 2020
So nice to see! This is a species of marine caddisfly (Trichoptera, Chathamniidae) that we have on the east coast. Both also occur in New Zealand and were described from there. If this came from near Bateman's Bay, it is probably Philanisus plebeius. The adult female is reported to lay its eggs in starfish, with the early young developing in the body cavity. I have collected larvae in Sydney Harbour that were identified by a New Zealand researcher as a second species. Next time you are at the coast, you might be able to find more in rock pools in their cases around or among some of the tufts of red coraline algae.
AlisonMilton
wrote:
20 Aug 2020
Hi Alice, This was in a tidal pool next to the Molongo River near Butters Bridge, Denman Prospect, ACT. Sadly, I don't get to the coast very often.
Alice
wrote:
21 Aug 2020
Hello Alison. So sad! When you wrote tidal pool, I thought immediately it was marine. The marine larvae look rather like leptocerid caddis larvae. So I expect that is what it is. It is not so easy to ID caddisflies from photos. Alice
Location information
- Coordinates 149.033857-35.288177
- Altitude 524.4m
- Maps Molonglo River Reserve
- Places Molonglo Valley, ACT
Sighting information
- 4 - 15 Abundance
- 17 Aug 2020 11:58 AM Recorded on
- AlisonMilton Recorded by
-
Collections
AlisonMilton Canberra & Southern Tablelands NatureMapr Trichoptera (order) Caddisflies (Trichoptera) Other insects Insects
Additional information
- 5mm to 12mm Animal size
- Larvae Breeding behaviour
Species information
- Trichoptera (order) Scientific name
- Unidentified Caddisfly Common name
- Not Sensitive
- Local native
- Non-invasive or negligible
- Up to 1205m Recorded at altitude
- External link More information
Record quality
- Images or audio
- More than one media file
- Verified by an expert moderator
- Nearby sighting(s) of same species
- GPS evidence of location
- Description
- Additional attributes