| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Trichoptera (caddis flies) |
Adults. Adults not minute. Antennae about as long as the fore-wings (to slightly longer); rather stout. Ocelli absent. Maxillary palps 5 segmented; the terminal segment inflexible, not multi-articulated, not annulated, and not much elongated.
The fringes of the wings shorter than the maximum width of the hind-wings (the wings long and very narrow, with rounded apices, the fore-wings densely pubescent). The fore-wings 10–15 mm long; without a discoidal cell; apical forks not reliably interpretable, the neuration unconventional. The hind-wings similar in width to the fore-wings; without a discoidal cell; apical forks not reliably interpretable.
Front tibia 2 spurred. Middle tibia 4 spurred. Hind tibia 4 spurred.
Larvae. The larvae constructing and living in transportable cases. The larval case shield-shaped, and made of sand grains, with wing-like lateral extensions. The larvae eruciform. The mesonotum sclerotized; entire (cf. Hickin’s figure), or divided into four sclerites (cf. his key!). The metanotum entirely membranous.
British representation. 2 species. Genera: Molanna.
Illustrations. • Molanna angustata Curtis: B. Ent. 716. • Molanna angustata Curtis: B. Ent. 716, legend+text. • Molanna angustata Curtis: B. Ent. 716, text cont.. • Molanna angustata: Stephens VI, 1835. • Molanna angustata: wing venation, maxillary palp. Molanna angustata: fore- and hind-wings of male (left) and female (right), with maxillary palp of the male. From Mosely (1939). • Molanna angustata: larva and case. Larva of Molanna angustata, in its case (at right) and removed. 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’.
