| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Trichoptera (caddis flies) |
Adults. Antennae much shorter than the fore-wings to about as long as the fore-wings; stout, or slender. Ocelli present. Maxillary palps 5 segmented. The maxillary palps of males 5 segmented.
The fore-wings 5–10 mm long; with a discoidal cell; apical forks 5 (all present). The hind-wings similar in width to the fore-wings; with a discoidal cell, or without a discoidal cell; apical forks 3 (only 2, 3 and 5 in Agapetus), or 4 (1, 2, 3 and 5).
Front tibia 2 spurred. Middle tibia 4 spurred. Hind tibia 4 spurred.
Larvae. The larvae constructing and living in transportable cases (or at least, bearing them: the cases in the form of simple saddles made of small stones, covering only the middle portion of the body); campodeoid. The mesonotum sclerotized (Agapetus), or entirely membranous. The metanotum sclerotized (Agapetus), or entirely membranous; in Agapetus, divided longitudinally into two sclerites. Abdominal segment 1 without retractable papillae. The larva with the terminal abdominal prolegs free of one another.
British representation. 6 species. Genera: Agapetus, Glossosoma.
Illustrations. • Agapetus and Glossosoma: wing venation and tibial spurs. 1, Glossosoma (Mystrophora) intermedia, male: fore-wings and hind-wings; and (1a) hind tibial spurs, the inner distal one being of unusual form in the male but normal in the female. 2, male Glossosoma vernale, fore- and hind-wings. 3, male Agapetus fuscipes, fore-and hind-wings. Apical forks numbered. (From Mosely, 1939). • Agapetus fuscipes: larva and case. Larva and a case of Agapetus fuscipes. From Hickin (1952).
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Trichoptera (caddis flies). Version: 27th July 2019. delta-intkey.com’.
