Mother of all caddis flies

[krayfish2]

Can someone tell me what I saw on my back window tonight? Tan / cream caddis that absolutely dwarfs an Oct caddis. Biggest caddis I've ever seen. Had to be close to 2 in long but took off before I could get the camera to focus and get a shot of him. I've never seen anything like it.

 

[Fish Sticks]

Can someone tell me what I saw on my back window tonight? Tan / cream caddis that absolutely dwarfs an Oct caddis. Biggest caddis I've ever seen. Had to be close to 2 in long but took off before I could get the camera to focus and get a shot of him. I've never seen anything like it.

Could it have been a moth? I think the largest in the world is in Nepal and thats a wing span of 2” and change. There are lots if aquatic moths near streams and terrestrial moths (spruce moth on gallitin)

 

[krayfish2]

Ok, 2" might have been a bit big on the size estimate. I wanted to get a picture so I could look at the legs and antenna but it was here, there and gone.

 

[sixfootfenwick]

Probably a moth. Some resemble caddis very closely and are bigger.

 

[6xAdams(Jones)]

I was taking the dog out one night in Southern MD a few years ago and spotted this giant bug. Google called it a male Fisher Fly. The females have fluffier antennae. I thought it was a Dobsonfly before I looked it up.

 

[tomgamber]

If you're looking it up (as I just did) you'll have more luck with "fishfly" rather than "fisher fly". I can see where that would look like a huge caddis with the fuzzy antennae.

 

[6xAdams(Jones)]

If you're looking it up (as I just did) you'll have more luck with "fishfly" rather than "fisher fly". I can see where that would look like a huge caddis with the fuzzy antennae.

Either way - some serious mandibles on that thing.

 

[redietz]

Either way - some serious mandibles on that thing.

Much smaller than on a dobson fly - that seems to be the main difference between them.

Alderflies are in the same group (Megaloptera.)

 

[6xAdams(Jones)]

Much smaller than on a dobson fly - that seems to be the main difference between them.

Alderflies are in the same group (Megaloptera.)

Any relative of the October Caddis in NC PA?

 

[Steeltrap]

Mothra...???

 

[redietz]

Any relative of the October Caddis in NC PA?

Not even close.

 

[tomgamber]

I had a few October caddis in my box when I moved back from ID. Our camp gets a few big stoneflies in the summer and they worked great on the smallies.

 

[Swattie87]

Moth. Native or Invasive status unknown.

 

[krayfish2]

I could not see the distended anus but I'm pretty sure it was stocked

 

[jifigz]

Cecropia moths are pretty gigantic....they don't look much like caddis, though. Fishflies and Dobsonflies are also huge but also don't look like caddis......

We get October Caddis in central pa every late summer early autumn....huge caddis that are orange, right?

 

[Swattie87]

I could not see the distended anus but I'm pretty sure it was stocked

Easy mistake, could happen to anybody.