A caddis interlude

A couple of months ago I picked up a copy of the RES's The Adult Trichoptera (Caddisflies) of Britain and Ireland, as I get a fair few caddis to light each year and I reckoned I should probably start having a crack at IDing some of the less easy species and put some dots on the map.

It arrived, I flicked through it and then on the shelf it went. However, last week I decided to have a crack at one of the low hanging fruit and look a little more closely at the all dark Mystacides species. These turn up in numbers to my garden light traps in August but are less numerous than M. longicornis. There are two possible species M. azurea and M. nigra, best distinguished by looking at the rear end. 

  

A quick comparison with the book showed that I had a female M. azurea wich was always going to be the most likely candidate as I think it's the most widespread and common of the two species.

Other recent species of interest to the MV trap were a new species for the garden in the form of a Crescent Helotropha leucostigma, which feeds on marshland plants such as yellow flag. A few have turned up locally recently so possibly a species having a good year round here.

A Hypera zoilus also appeared at the trap and seems to appear around this time each year to light. Usually only see it once by this method and then nothing until the following year so assuming these must fly in and aren't actually present in the garden as I never find them by sweeping or suction sampling.