Limnephilidae
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Limnephilidae is a family of caddisflies with about 100 genera. This is one of the most species-rich Trichoptera families of northern temperate regions but only a few are known from tropical areas and the southern hemisphere. For this reason they are often known as northern caddisflies. The adults are usually brown in colour, often with narrow mottled or patterned forewings and much broader, transparent hindwings.
The aquatic larvae construct portable cases from a wide variety of materials, vegetable and mineral, with the cases of young larvae often looking completely different to those of larger instars. They tend to be rather slow moving and usually feed by browsing algae or scavenging animal remains. They pupate within the larval case, the pupa swimming to the surface before flying away as an adult. For most species the life cycle is completed within one year.
[edit] Land caddis
The family includes one extraordinary aberrant genus, Enoicyla, whose larvae are terrestrial, living among moss and leaf litter. The females of these insects have only vestigial wings and are flightless.
[edit] References
- Chinery, Michael Collins Guide to the Insects of Britain and Western Europe 1986 (Reprinted 1991)
- Family description
