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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Caddisflies (Trichoptera) » Integripalpia » Brevitentoria » Leptoceroidea » Calamoceratidae » Heteroplectron » Heteroplectron californicum
Photo#901535
Heteroplectron californicum
Copyright © 2014 Mark Melton

Heteroplectron californicum
Healdsburg, Mill Creek Road, Mill Creek, Sonoma County, California, USA
March 17, 2014
Size: larva 18 mm, case 19 mm
This is more of a curiosity than anything else. This larva (Heteroplectron californicum) was found using what appears to be the pupal case of Nerophilus californicus as his home. Heteroplectron californicum usually chews a tunnel into a twig or piece of wood and uses that as a case as shown here (1). Nerophilus constructs a case like this (2). Presumably the cases above were pupal cases as the small end is plugged with a pebble attached with silk and the larger (24 mm) case on the left has some pieces of wood attached to the top, something that isn't seen in larval cases.
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Contributed by Mark Melton on 17 March, 2014 - 5:58pm

Awesome!
That's really interesting! Thanks for sharing the photo.
… Bill Gerth, 17 March, 2014 - 6:14pm login or register to post comments

 
H. californicum
I initially thought that the case on the left was a spent pupal case of N. californicus but Wiggins (1996) says that H. californicum often attaches small pieces of wood to the anterior edge of cases it appropriates. Nerophilus californicus does not use these small pieces of wood in it's case construction.
… Mark Melton, 4 August, 2017 - 11:55pm login or register to post comments

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