Odontoceridae

Introduction

In earlier days, the family was considered a “section” of Leptoceridae (e.g., Walker) or as a subfamily of Leptoceridae (e.g., Ulmer), but later workers considered Odontocerinae Wallengren (1891) to be a distinct family. The family contains about 115 extant species in 14 genera, scattered about the Old and New Worlds. Four genera are endemic to North America, 3 in the West (Namamyia Banks, Nerophilus Banks, and Parthina Denning) and 1 in the East (Pseudogoera Carpenter). Of the 2 additional genera found in North America, Marilia Müller reaches its greatest diversity in the Neotropics (ca. 45 species), with additional species in China, Southeast Asia, and Australia, and Psilotreta Banks occurs in eastern North America, India, Nepal, Southeast Asia, China, Korea, and Japan. In addition to many species of Marilia, the Neotropics harbors 2 endemic monotypic genera, both from southeastern Brazil, Barypenthus Burmeister and Anastomoneura Huamantinco and Nessimian. The Australasian fauna is poorly represented by only a couple of species of Marilia and 2 species of the endemic genus Barynema Banks. Southeast Asia is home to 2 endemic genera, Inthanopsyche Malicky and Lannapsyche Malicky, in addition to those mentioned above. Only the nominotypical genus, Odontocerum Leach, occurs in Europe. The family is not known from Africa, but a single monotypic genus with equivocal placement in the family (Neboiss 1978) was described from the Seychelles, Leptodermatopteryx Ulmer. Larvae live in springs and small to medium-sized streams and rivers, some are associated with waterfalls. They seem to prefer slow flowing areas or depositional zones, where they may burrow in the sandy substrate. Cases are made of sand grains or larger mineral fragments and are very resistant to crushing due to reinforcing silken mortar applied by the larva between sand grains. Larvae are omnivorous, feeding on organic detritus, vascular plants, moss, and algae as well as aquatic arthropods. (From Holzenthal et al., 2007)

References

Holzenthal R.W., Blahnik, R.J., Prather, A.L., and Kjer K.M. 2007. Order Trichoptera Kirby 1813 (Insecta), Caddisflies. In: Zhang, Z.-Q., and Shear, W.A. (Eds). 2007 Linneaus Tercentenary: Progress in Invertebrate Taxonomy. Zootaxa. 1668:639–698.

Wallengren, H.D.J. (1891) Skandinaviens Neuroptera. Andra afdelningen. Svenska Akademien Handlingar, 24, 1–173.