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Photo#271491
Zebra caddisfly - Macrostemum carolina

Zebra caddisfly - Macrostemum carolina
Pearl R. WMA, Slidell, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, USA
April 23, 2009
Size: ~1.2cm
Very beautiful caddisfly, collected at blacklight. My ID is based on the images in this guide, if there are other Macrostemum that have this pattern, please correct me.

Images of this individual: tag all
Zebra caddisfly - Macrostemum carolina Zebra caddisfly - Macrostemum carolina

Moved
Moved from Zebra Caddisfly.

Macrostemum carolina(?)
If this were M. zebratum, it would seem to represent a significant range extension for that species, which has a more northerly distribution than M. carolina or M. transversa. (Though there is considerable overlap.) In their 1982 survey, Lago, Holzenthal, and Harris list three records of M. carolina from St. Tammany Parish. Currently, I believe that carolina is the only Macrostemum species recorded for LA.

 
Thank you
I'll see if I can track down some images or keys to compare M. carolina to my specimens. I'm not very familiar with the mayfly literature, so I just compared to images already in the guide.

 
I meant caddisfly
No coffee this morning.

 
Ok, I'm convinced
Found no images, but did find a description (Ernest G. Schwiebert - 2007) that makes only subtle distinctions between M. zebratum and M. carolina. The text agrees with your diagnosis that southern Louisiana = M. carolina.

 
I understand about the coffee. :)
I see some slight differences in the wing markings between your specimen and typical M. zebratum, but the main reason for suggesting carolina was collection/distribution information. I do recall a note somewhere in the literature that described Macrostemum appearance as being fairly "stable." However, most of what I have found about this species either addressed distinctions between the larvae of carolina and zebratum or discussed the variations in the retreat architecture of the carolina larvae.

 
M. carolina
I have a photograph of M. carolina on page 148 of my Caddisflies book. Dave Ruiter ID'd it, and the wing markings are just like this one. Mine came from the Savannah River.

You can find distribution information at http://entweb.clemson.edu/database/trichopt/index.htm

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