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Containing group: Brevitentoria

Introduction

The family contains a single genus, Limnocentropus Ulmer, and 15 species occurring in India and Nepal, China, Southeast Asia (including Borneo), and Japan. The genus was created for the Japanese species L. insolitus Ulmer, and originally included in the Phryganeidae (Ulmer 1907). The genus Kitagamia Iwata, and its coordinate family Kitagamiidae Tsuda, is a synonym of Limnocentropus. The family Limnocentropidae was established by Tsuda (1942) as a replacement name for Kitagamiidae, later emended to Limnocentropodidae by Kimmins (1950).

Larvae live in torrential waters and attach their cases to rocks by a strong, silken peduncle, about as long as or longer than the case. The case itself is made of small rocks with silken denticles incorporated in some species. Larvae are large, robust, and predaceous. The case is positioned to extend in the current so that the larva can collect drifting insects with its strong, stout, outstretched spiny legs (Wiggins 1969). Unlike the vast majority of Trichoptera, adults have well developed, sclerotized mandibles.  Text modified from Holzenthal et al., 2007a.

Discussion of Phylogenetic Relationships

The family took on a position of special importance, with Frania and Wiggins (1997) proposing that it was the sister taxon of the rest of Integripalpia.  However, this position has not recovered in the combined molecular and morphological analysis of Kjer et al., 2002, or in the combined analysis of Holzenthal et al., 2007b.  The position of Limnocentropodidae within the "Leptoceroidea" is unstable.

Other Names for Limnocentropus

• Limnocentropodidae
• Limnocentropidae Tsuda
• Kitagamia Iwata
• Kitagamiidae Tsuda

References

Frania, H.E. & Wiggins, G.B. (1997) Analysis of morphological and behavioural evidence for the phylogeny and higher classification of Trichoptera (Insecta). Life Sciences Contributions, Royal Ontario Museum, 160, 1–67.

Holzenthal R.W., Blahnik, R.J., Prather, A.L., and Kjer K.M. 2007a. Order Trichoptera Kirby 1813 (Insecta), Caddisflies. In: Zhang, Z.-Q., and Shear, W.A. (Eds). 2007 Linneaus Tercentenary: Progress in Invertebrate Taxonomy. Zootaxa. 58 pp. 1668:639-698

Holzenthal R.W., Blahnik, R.J., Kjer K.M and Prather, A.L. 2007b. An update on the phylogeny of Caddisflies (Trichoptera). Proceedings of the XIIth International Symposium on Trichoptera. Bueno-Soria, R. Barba-Alvearz and B. Armitage (Eds). pp. 143-153. The Caddis Press.

Kimmins, D.E. (1950) Indian caddis flies (Trichoptera) I. New species of the genus Limnocentropus Ulmer. Annals & Magazine of Natural History, 12, 590–603.

Kjer, K.M., Blahnik, R.J, and Holzenthal, R.W. 2002. Phylogeny of Caddisflies (Insecta, Trichoptera), Zoologica Scripta 31(1) :83-91.

Tsuda, M. (1942) Japanische Trichopteren. I. Systematik. Memoirs of the College of Science, Kyoto Imperial University, Series B, 17, 239–339.

Ulmer, G. (1907a) Neue Trichopteren. Notes from the Leyden Museum, 29, 1–53.