Family CHATHAMIIDAE

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Family CHATHAMIIDAE

Introduction

Medium sized caddis-flies (wing span 15–22 mm), represented by one species in Australia.

The family is restricted to the Australian and New Zealand areas with a total of four species in two genera, of which the only Australian species occurs along the New South Wales coast.

The Australian species was orginally described in the family Hydropsychidae by Walker, and its synonym in the Rhyacophilidae by Brauer; Ulmer (1907) placed them together in the Sericostomatidae; Mosely & Kimmins (1953) erected the family Philanisidae to accommodate the genus Philanisus, but Riek (1977) synonymised Philanisidae with Chathamiidae.

Diagnosis

Adults: ocelli absent. Maxillary palpi 5-segmented in both sexes; in males the segment 2 is long; segment 3 arises before the apex of the second. Antennae stout, basal segment shorter than the head. Mesoscutum mostly with fine setate punctures, arranged in two irregular bands; scutellum, rounded anteriorly, with a pair of indistinctly fused setal warts. Wing coupling by enlarged, curved macrotrichia on fore margin of hindwing, wing span 15–22 mm; mid-tibia distinctly longer than femur. Female abdomen terminates with a long ovipositor.

Tibial spurs 2: 2: 4.

Larva: head and labrum with numerous secondary setae; mesonotum with a pair of weakly sclerotized plates; metanotum with three pairs of weak sclerites, covered with numerous setae. Abdomen with branched gills, without lateral fringe, segment 8 with a lateral row or irregular band of fine spicules. The larvae are portable tube case makers, inhabiting intertidal zone rock pools, feeding mainly on calcareous marine algae.