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Sticker of Small red sedge
Bug card No. 3937 of 4,939

Small red sedge

Tinodes waeneri
Eats: PlantsOther insectsPonds, rivers and shores6 legs

The small red sedge is a little caddisfly with reddish-brown wings and darker lines on them. It looks a bit like a small moth. You can find it near clean streams, rivers, lakes and ponds.

Lives in
Much of Europe, near clean fresh water
Length
5 to 9 mm (0.2 to 0.35 in)
Top speed
about 6.6 km/h (4.1 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Its young grow up in the water, where they feed on tiny plants and algae.
For real!Photo of Small red sedge
Picture by This image is created by user B. Schoenmakers at Waarneming.nl , a source of nature observations in the Netherlands.. CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Small red sedge about 9 mm long (0.35 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)
small enough to sit on your fingernailas long as 1.5 grains of rice in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 57 secondsmoves 200 times its own body length every second

How big is Small red sedge compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It only lives where the water is clean.

2

Adults like bright lights and often fly to lamps in the evening.

3

You can see the adults from May to September.

4

Its front wings are only about 6 to 9 millimetres long.

you asked

Most asked questions about Small red sedge

?Is the small red sedge a moth?

No. It is a caddisfly, though it looks a bit like a small moth.

?When can you see the small red sedge?

From May to September, near streams, rivers and lakes.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Tinodes waeneri
Group
Other insects
Family
Psychomyiidae
Classification
Insecta > Trichoptera > Psychomyiidae
Lives on
Europe

Where the facts come from

  1. Tinodes waeneri (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by This image is created by user B. Schoenmakers at Waarneming.nl , a source of nature observations in the Netherlands.. CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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More from the same group: Other insects

Also at home here: Ponds, rivers and shores

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