#leptoceridae

The last NZ species I’ll be covering until the end of the year when I go over there myself and find more.

photo by @purrdence

Apart from 3 Baltic Amber fossils, the genus is found in Asia from India to Japan; in Indonesia, Papua-New Guinea, all of Australia; on South Pacific Islands including New Hebrides, New Caledonia, and obviously New Zealand; and in South and Central America. Aoteoroa has 5 species, but I don’t know which this one is.

The many species of Triplectides breed in most kinds of watercourse, including cold and warm, unpolluted to moderately polluted, permanent and temporary lakes, ponds, rivers and creeks.  The genus is ubiquitous in Australian waterways, including temporary habitats in the central deserts, and is often the most common caddisfly genus encountered in benthic surveys.

The larvae construct mobile cases usually out of plant matter, but occasionally stones or the cases of other caddisflies. The plant cases can be a hollowed length of stick, or a tubular collection of plant fragments. Their hind legs have dark bands between the leg joints.

Bug of the Day

Tough to crop the photo when the darned antennae are longer than the body :-)