NEW NEWS

(6 AUG 08) A new state record and Erie County is Ceraclea annulicornis (Stephens) collected on 8 Jun 2008. Other new county records for Erie County are: Hydroptila grandiose Ross, Stactobiella palmate (Ross), and Pycnopsyche conspersa Banks. Also, a very nice record that is only the second time it has been recorded in 70 years is: Oligostomis pardalis (Walker).

TRICHOPTERA OF PENNSYLVANIA

This order of insect Trichoptera is best known for the remarkable cases and retreats constructed by the aquatic larvae. Caddisflies are a highly advanced insect order, closely related to the Lepidoptera. Colloquial names used by fisherman include "sedges, shadflies, and sandflies." These insects comprise a major portion of the invertebrate fauna of aquatic systems. More than 1200 species are known from North America north of Mexico.The North American list was compiled from a database maintained by John Morse of Clemson University (last revised May 2000) and records from the Smithsonian Institution (USNM). The Pennsylvania database was compiled from "Trichoptera Biodiversity of Pennsylvania," 3rd edition (Masteller, E.C. and Flint Jr. O.S.), which was determined using collections from 1989-1998, literature records, specimens in numerous museums, and records supplied by various individuals. Several additional records are reported here since the 1992 publication of Masteller and Flint, "The Trichoptera (caddisflies) of Pennsylvania: An Annotated Checklist" (Jr. PA Academy of Sci. 66(2):68-78). The Wild Resource Conservation Fund funded the initial research for this project. O. S. Flint Jr. made the majority of determinations.If you are aware of omissions that have a valid literature citation or specimens with a voucher specimen on file, please contact E. C. Masteller. The list currently includes 325 species from 22 families; the majority of records were of adult specimens. The records that are the source of the GIS maps are now on the website under caddisfly searchable database. There are 4427 records that we will update as more data becomes available. Searches can be done by county, site, species, physiographic province, drainage basin, state parks, collector, and deposit.