Salutations, BugFans,<\/p>\n
Caddisflies are famous for having soft-bodied, aquatic larvae that, depending on their species and habitat, use plant materials or teeny stones to construct portable cases<\/a> that may be \u201clog-cabin,\u201d tube, or snail shell-shaped (caddisflies that live in strong currents may spin nets instead). For \u201cglue,\u201d they use silk that they produce in a gland in their \u201clower lip.\u201d Some people \u201cfarm\u201d caddisfly larvae, giving them bits of semiprecious stones and metals to build with and then making jewelry from the shed cases (you can Google it). <\/p>\n In the early days of modern taxonomy, caddisflies (now order Trichoptera) were listed with dragonflies, stoneflies, mayflies, dobsonflies (hellgrammites), lacewings, and more, in the order Neuroptera, but caddisflies were split off 200 years ago. Their larvae look caterpillar-ish and the adults are often mistaken for moths, so it\u2019s not surprising that caddisflies are closely related to the Lepidopterans.<\/p>\n The Giant casemakers belong to the caddisfly family Phryganeidae, and they\u2019re found through much of the U.S., into Canada. Adults are about \u00be\u201d long (large, for a caddisfly) and dark\/dull-colored, and they don\u2019t stray far from the wetlands required by their also-large, stripy-headed offspring. Phryganied larvae live in cold water, both still and gently flowing, and they construct their cases by sticking vegetation together longitudinally or in a spiral (you can find left or right-handed spirals within the same species), sometimes incorporating tiny pebbles. Look for them in grasses that hang into the water, on submerged leaves, and on underwater plants and roots. When they\u2019re disturbed, or when they\u2019re defending their case from roving pryganeids that have misplaced their own case, larvae can crawl into and out of their cases far more easily than can other caddisflies (and from either end!). Do watch the video clip from troutnut.com<\/a> (they remind the BugLady of otters). <\/p>\nGiant Casemaker Caddisfly<\/h3>\n