Common marine caddisfly
The common marine caddisfly is a small, tawny insect that looks a bit like a little moth, with feelers much longer than its body. It is one of the very few insects that live in the sea. Its young grow up in rock pools by the seashore.
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Fun facts
It cannot live in fresh water, only by the sea.
The mother lays her eggs inside a starfish called a cushion star.
Its young build a little tube-shaped case to live in, made of seaweed and bits of sand or shell.
The young grow through seven stages in the rock pools before they become grown-ups with wings.
Scientists first described it in 1852 from just one male.
Most asked questions about Common marine caddisfly
?Where does the common marine caddisfly live?
On the coasts of New Zealand and New South Wales in Australia. Its young live in rock pools.
?Where does the marine caddisfly lay its eggs?
Inside starfish called cushion stars.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Philanisus plebeius
- Named by
- Walker, 1852
- Group
- Other insects
- Family
- Chathamiidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Trichoptera > Chathamiidae
- Lives on
- Australia and Oceania
Where the facts come from
- Philanisus plebeius (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Steve Kerr. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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