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3. Caddisfly8378h

This caddisfly(?) came to UV light at night in Brooklyn, NY. It's about 8 mm long not including the antennae.

Hi Steve-

Hope you have better luck here than you did on BugGuide ID Request. Sorry I can't identify it, but am a bit curious why its length would have shrunk 11% in the last week.

Roger - Thank you for pointing out my mistake. I am basing the size on the thread count of the sheet on which the insect is resting. It's about 28 threads per cm. The critter looks to me to be about 25 threads which puts it at 8.99 mm. When I posted on Troutnut, I probably divided by 3 instead of 2.8 which would put it at 8.33 mm.

Steve-

I have contacted Dr. John Morse of Clemson University concerning the identity of your caddisfly, and will post his response once I receive it.

Steve-

Received the following response from Dr. Morse this morning:



You have (at least) the (11) following Lepidostoma species in New York:

L. americanum
L. bryanti
L. costale
L. frosti
L. griseum
L. lydia
L. pictile
L. sackeni
L. sommermanae
L. togatum
L. vernale

Of those, L. costale, L. griseum and L. togatum can likely be eliminated because they are said to be late-summer emergers. L. bryanti is said to emerge in June, and L. vernale in April and May. However, I am unable to find emergence dates for the remainder.

when in doubt ask morse is always a good strategy.

just wanted to say that i have collected lepidostoma togatum in april around Fort Payne AL and Chattanooga TN and L. griseum in june on the blue ridge parkway in VA.

you could narrow the field down a bit if you look at the end of the insect, on the dorsal side. one group of lepidostoma has very hairy round paired warts, the others do not. while you're at it, take a picture of his naughty bits!

The Brooklyn location triggered a vague recollection about the Long Island streams, and I found this interesting mention in LaFontaine's Caddisflies:

"L. vernalis [sp?] has produced fine fly-fishing opportunities for me on many streams, but the most memorable action has been on the beautiful spring creeks of Long Island, especially the Nissequogue and Carmans."

we have a new species of Lepidostoma that is very similar to vernale and flinti. I had never seen vernale until John Weaver sent me some specimens to compare it to. You got to love Lepidostoma... McLachlan said that this group was, in terms of secondary sexual characteristics, the 'curiosity shop of trichoptera'!

Thank you all for the help and comments.