Troutnut.com Fly Fishing for Trout Home
User Password
or register.

Caddisfly Genus Phryganea (Rush Sedges)

Taxonomic Navigation -?-
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
» Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
» Class Insecta (Insects)
» Order Trichoptera (Caddisflies)
» Family Phryganeidae
» Genus Phryganea (Rush Sedges)
Species in PhryganeaNumber of SpecimensNumber of Pictures
Phryganea cinereaRush Sedge00
Phryganea sayiRush Sedge00
Common Names
Trout may feed heavily on any stage of these large caddisflies.

Hatching Behavior

The pupae crawl out onto shore to emerge, but it may be useful to imitate their subsurface movements.

Egg-Laying Behavior

Time Of Day: Evening
The large adults have very unusual egg-laying behavior, described well by Gary LaFontaine in Caddisflies:

In the evening they begin the mating and egg-laying activities, the females flying thirty to forty feet up in the air and dive-bombing the surface. The large insects hit the water with such a force that they send up small splashes. During intense egg-laying activity they may make a smooth surface look rain splattered.

Swisher and Richards describe a different behavior for the genus in Selective Trout:

Females lay their eggs on the water's surface and run across the water to return to shore.

Readers familiar with this genus are encouraged to reconcile these conflicting accounts in the comments. It may be that both are correct, and the running behavior follows after the splash-down.

Larva & Pupa Biology

Current Speed: Still or slow

Your Thoughts On Phryganea:

You must log in at the top of the page to post. If you haven't registered yet, it's this easy:

Username:     Email:

Password:    Confirm Password:

I am at least 13 years old and agree to the rules.
Top 10 Hatches
Top 5 Products
Top 5 Specimens
Recent Updates
Last update July 19th, 2007.
Misc. Websites