-- why would you frass it? Someone may be able to tell us more about it if you leave it in ID Request for a while.

Ron gets after me from time to time for frassing too much also. :)

Seems like some frass too little, and the pics build up waiting for contributing editors to come clean them up all the time, and some (incl. some editors) frass too much (according to some). So, do I frass stuff or not?

If my shot has new data (for month but especially for place) and if it's a reasonably decent shot, I'm happy to park it in as far a taxonomic slot as I can. The problem I have with this shot (and tachinids and flesh flies amongst others) is that there are LOTS of shots like that that no one seems to be able to take any further, and there are already *plenty* of them waiting to be IDed further if someone does show who has the time and/or expertise.

I don't have a problem leaving this one (or some others), but I'd rather err on the side of keeping things neat than adding to the mess. I'm open to a better guideline for frassing if you have one.

of caddsiflies not yet identified. But there is no telling when someone who studies and knows caddisflies will appear at BugGuide's door. And when they do, dozens of images will be identified faster than they can be put away! That happened recently with Psocids and suddenly there is order out of chaos. We are confident that the same will happen with caddisflies and likely sooner than either of us think.

So as we said, we would not have sent this to frass. It is not out of focus or tiny or over or under exposed. It seems perfectly delightful and reasonably unique among the images on BugGuide. Both good reasons to keep it. Image space is not a problem so it doesn't hurt to sit there while it waits to be ID'd. And if it ever became a problem there are thousands of duplicates on some common species that could go first or some of the thousands of unknowable Ichneumons!!

So, when to frass? We have tried to answer this several times, but there is no clean response. In general Frass is for bad images but also for some reasonably good images of common species in common places and common times of the year. We don't think either criterion fits your caddisfly here, which is why we spoke up for it!

Looks like genus Limnephilus, family limenphilidae. I wouldn't hazard a guess at the species, as there are almost 100 of them.

Never saw one before, then two within the space of a week or so. :)

Thanks for the ID, Brad.