Neophylax (Autumn Mottled Sedges) Caddisfly Adult Pictures

I have the following entry in my journal for Clark's Creek, north of Harrisburg PA: "June 12, 2004. Arrived late to find Al already on the stream. He showed me a big yellow bodied, tan wing caddis that he says comes off this time every year."

Al lives near Clarks, and knows the stream very well. The bug was about a size 12 or 14. It looked very much like the one in the pictures Jason posted. It had an abdomen that I remember looked like a big ant's (full, smooth, and clearly segmented) with a very thin waist at the front of the abdomen like the front of an ant's gaster. How many big yellow bodied caddis like this are there? I'm just wondering if I can surmise that the bug Al showed me might be the same as the one here, or if there are so many caddis like this one that there is no way of even suggesting such.

I'm not familiar with this species, but I've taken another look through all the photos, and this is the best rationale I can come up with--

Not Hydropsyche: Wing venation is wrong; spur pattern is wrong; maxillary palp is wrong. But H. betteni is about the right size and color.

Not Phryganeidae: Size is wrong (common genera, Phryganea and Ptilostomis, typically range from 21-25mm); spur pattern is wrong (usually 2,4,4).

Probably Limnephilidae: Shape and venation of front and hind wings very similar to drawings of Dicosmoecus wings; maxillary palp matches configuration of Limnephilid females; spur pattern 1,2,4 matches (usually 1,2-3,4); large setal wart on scutellum matches.

Possibly Limnephilus: Size of specimen (13-14mm) is about average for this genus; overall color and pattern seems compatible with other members of this genus I've seen; the pattern of setae and setal warts appears to exactly match a drawing of Limnephilus; location and habitat seem reasonable (but with 95 species in the genus, it's hard to rule anything out on that account).

The other reason for suggesting Limnephilus is a simple process of elimination. It's probably not Frenesia or Psychoglypha, based on season (and color). I know Pycnopsyche and Hydatophylax well, and it's not either of them. I'm familiar with Dicosmoecus, and that's not it. Onocosmoecus and Platycentropus are larger; and Ironoquia is a different shape. Ecclisomyia, Oligophlebodes, and Chyranda all have "Western" in their common name.

I know this leaves out quite a few oddball genera, but I'm sticking with Limnephilus until Litobrancha picks up this thread and tells me what it really is! :)

It is not Limnephilidae, I guess it is some of Neophylax or other Thremmatinae. My reasons:a) color pattern look as in many Neophylax; at the base of hind leg spurs the only one black spine (in Limnephilidae - two sines; in Thremmatinae - 0 or one); 2) female genitalia is not as in Limnephilidae s.str.

I took lots of pictures of this large caddisfly hoping one of the caddis gurus here can identify it to a more detailed level than I. I was able to follow the key in Merritt & Cummins through to Phryganeidae, though I might have made a mistake.

Jason-

Looks like Hydrospyche to me, most likely H. betteni. However, if you've keyed it out to Phryganeidae, I'm probably wrong.