Caddisfly Family Philopotamidae

Mayflies

Caddisflies

Stoneflies

Taxonomic Navigation -?-

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

» Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

» Class Insecta (Insects)

» Order Trichoptera (Caddisflies)

» Family Philopotamidae

Genus in Philopotamidae
ChimarraLittle Black Sedges	2	10
DolophilodesMedium Evening Sedges	5	27
WormaldiaLittle Autumn Sedges	0	0

Pictures Below ↓

This is page 2 of specimens of Philopotamidae. Visit the main Philopotamidae page for:

The behavior and habitat of Philopotamidae.

Pictures of 8 Caddisfly Specimens in the Family Philopotamidae:

Specimen Page:12

Female Dolophilodes distinctus (Tiny Black Gold Speckled-Winged Caddis) Caddisfly Adult

View 6 PicturesThis is a really strange specimen. I would guess it's one of the dry caddis pupa that scoots across the surface of the water as a pupa rather than emerging right away. Its "wing pads (

The wing pads on this final instar Baetidae mayfly nymph are extremely dark.

Wing pad: A protrusion from the thorax of an insect nymph which holds the developing wings. Black wing pads usually indicate that the nymph is nearly ready to emerge into an adult.)" sure don't look right, though. Maybe they're deformed and that's why I was able to find this one as a pupa in the first place. It also looks like it might be a caddis adult missing its wings, but since I found three of them, that kind of rules out such an anomalous maiming.

I found this one and one other on a midstream rock. The previous day, I caught a similar creature kicking around on the water's surface.

This one died and shriveled a little bit before I could photograph it, but it's basically in its original shape.

Collected May 29, 2007 from Brodhead Creek in Pennsylvania
Added to Troutnut.com by Troutnut on June 4, 2007

Chimarra (Little Black Sedges) Caddisfly Larva

View 4 Pictures

Collected March 1, 2004 from unknown in Wisconsin
Added to Troutnut.com by Troutnut on January 25, 2006

Dolophilodes aequalis (Medium Evening Sedge) Caddisfly Adult

View 2 Pictures

Collected May 1, 2005 from Grizzly Creek in Montana
Added to Troutnut.com by Bnewell on June 30, 2011

Dolophilodes (Medium Evening Sedges) Caddisfly Larva

View 9 PicturesI think this larva best fits Dolophilodes, in which the anterior (Anterior: Toward the front of an organism's body. The phrase "anterior to" means "in front of.") margin of the frontoclypeus is supposed to be "slightly asymmetrical." I can't confidently make out the asymmetry, but the other genera are supposed to have either greater asymmetry or a symmetrical, but convex, shape, whereas this one is clearly concave.

Based on distribution records, the species should be either aequalis, dorcus, or pallidipes, but I can't find any source to distinguish between them.

Collected August 3, 2020 from the East Fork Big Lost River in Idaho
Added to Troutnut.com by Troutnut on August 19, 2020

Philopotamidae Caddisfly Larva

View 2 Pictures

Collected March 13, 2005 from Cascadilla Creek in New York
Added to Troutnut.com by Troutnut on April 5, 2006

Specimen Page:12

Jargon Defined:

Anterior: Toward the front of an organism's body. The phrase "anterior to" means "in front of."

Larva: Many classes of aquatic insects, such as caddisflies, midges, craneflies, dobsonflies, alderflies, and many more, are known as "larvae" rather than "nymphs" in their juvenile stages. They have mostly soft bodies rather than hard exoskeletons. These insects also advance through a "pupa" stage before reaching adulthood.

Pupa: Any insect which spends most of its juvenile lifetime as a larva first becomes a pupa for a time before emerging as a fully grown adult. Depending on the species, the pupal form can be very important for fly fishermen to imitate.

The wing pads on this final instar Baetidae mayfly nymph are extremely dark.

Wing pads: A protrusion from the thorax of an insect nymph which holds the developing wings. Black wing pads usually indicate that the nymph is nearly ready to emerge into an adult.

Useful References:

LaFontaine, Gary. 1981. Caddisflies. The Lyons Press.