Talk:Caddisfly

Opening heading
i have some issues with this article,

altough caddis flies are can be cased or uncased i believe both forms may live in stagnant and flowing water, also i believe some net spinning caddis flies are cased, whilst others are not.

Before i make relevent revisions to this article, i wanted to make sure i was right and see if any other concerns existed. chhers

this info is based on http://tolweb.org/tree?group=Trichoptera&contgroup=Endopterygota

and as Fresh wters of New Zealand 2005 by the newzealand Hydrological society.

You are mostly correct. Philopotamid caddisflies are net spinners and do not make a case of any sort; they live in a loose silk net that collapses and looks like snot on a rock when lifted out of the water. Hydropsychid caddisflies, also net spinners and make a case-like structure that is usually referred to as a 'retreat'; their nets are frequently framed and stay intact when lifted. The distinction between cases and retreats is that cases are usually mobile, and retreats are not. However there are species that make fixed cases that for some reason are not called retreats (let me see if I can make it more complicated:)!!) Anyway, there are caddisfly species that occur in fairly stagnant water, and also fairly impacted flowing water.  I threw in some stuff on water quality, life cycles, and allergies today; more when time allows; my info is 'off the top of my head' as they say, but I have studied the little beasties extensively am confident in the accuracy  (DMC Feb 11 2006).

The difference between the retreat and the case is that the retreat is a permanently affixed structure from its construction to its end of use, while a case is a portable structure at the begining of its use. The case may be affixed to substrate at some point during its use, but it is still in effect a portable case. Larvae of the family Brachycentridae, for example, will often affix their portable cases to the substrate for feeding, but then can detach them and drift to a new location. In the case of net spinning families like the Philopotamidae that do not build a retreat separate from the net itself, the net, permenently affixed, serves as the retreat as well. 130.127.109.130 (talk) 19:14, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

Is there a better way to do the lifecycle link without using the phrase 'biological life cycle'? DMC Feb 12 2006)

Made some small improvements today
I reworded the piece about larval feeding which made it sound like detritus is a form of aquatic invertebrate; furthermore, it's not what net-spinning caddisflies capture in their nets. Detritus is processed (mostly for the plankton living in it) by shredders and scrapers.

I added alternative emergence behaviors exhibited by a significant minority of species (crawling out on land rather than transitioning into adults in the surface film alone).

Fixed the "artificial flies" link to point to fly lure since there is no artificial flies page.

Added to the adult activity periods that some species are active in the winter. These include some species of Dolophilodes and Frenesia.

Made a few other small changes I forgot -- mostly grammatical.

A new photo of a case carrying larva
I uploaded a photo of a larva tonight. If anyone thinks it's appropriate, please attach it to the article; I don't feel comfortable doing it since it's my photo.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Caddisfly-larva.jpg

User:apv Sat Jun 23 01:20:10 PDT 2007

Image was added to the article. 130.127.109.130 (talk) 19:18, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

I believe that there are many grammars made in this article and their maybe many incorrect information as well.

Where does the name come from?
I mean, who was "Caddis?" Was it a person? Proscriptus (talk) 17:01, 28 January 2011 (UTC)

Ah! Could it come from "Cadiz beard," as used in Shakespeare? That refers to a particular beard shape, also called a "Cales" beard or "Caddis" beard, which etymologically would make sense. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singeing_the_King_of_Spain%27s_Beard Proscriptus (talk) 17:10, 28 January 2011 (UTC)


 * From Chris Packham on BBC's Springwatch TV show, 8th June 2011: " 'Caddis' is the name for a strip of cloth. People selling cloth in the Middle Ages used to wear strips of it draped over their bodies to advertise the range of fabric that they had: and that's where the 'caddis' name comes from." Does anyone have a source for this? ~dom Kaos~ (talk) 14:55, 9 June 2011 (UTC)

The OED online gives a number of meanings for "caddis" all relating to fabric: 1. Cotton wool, floss silk, or the like, used in padding: Scottish writers of the 18th c. applied the name to ‘lint’ used in surgery. Obs.

a1400—1769 2. a. Worsted yarn, crewel. Obs.

1530—1721 †b. Hence attrib. as a material. Obs.

1550–1600—1675 †c. Short for caddis ribbon: A worsted tape or binding, used for garters, etc. Obs.

1580—1751

†3. a. A kind of stuff; perh. of worsted (or ? silk).

1536—1552–3 b. A coarse cheap serge. [Modern French cadis.] Cf. caddow n.2

1578—1887

(http://www.oed.com/viewdictionaryentry/Entry/25925)

Regarding common names- in western New York (Buffalo area) caddisflies were invariably called "sand flies" though obviously they are not. I believe this term for caddisflies was also used along the US shore of Lake Erie. Parenthetically, There seems to be significantly fewer caddisflies in western New York now than in decades past. [user: Bill Hynes] — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.228.133.10 (talk) 22:48, 13 July 2012 (UTC)

Fact check
" their bodies tend to be tougher than the building."......what building?....if you mean a hypothetical case then what's the basis for the assertion?...citation needed.

Request move

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: page already moved by User:innotata.  Ron h jones (Talk) 01:28, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Trichoptera to Caddisfly — Request move from scientific name to primary common name, currently a redirect here. —innotata (Talk • Contribs) 21:46, 2 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Query: How frequent are the other listed "common names", sedge-fly and rail-fly around the world? If they're reasonably common (or dominant somewhere), then the scientific name would be the best target. --Stemonitis (talk) 07:24, 4 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Sedge-fly appears to be a name for "certain caddisflies", and rail-fly seems rather uncommon. There are a number of other common names, I think, but none are used commonly, and most are seen as types of "caddisfly". —innotata (Talk • Contribs) 15:40, 4 March 2010 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Assessment comment
Substituted at 00:57, 12 June 2016 (UTC)