Welcome to the Trichoptera World Checklist!


This picture is of a male Nectopsyche exquisita
(Walker), Family Leptoceridae.
The picture was provided by courtesy of
Dr. Bill Stark, Mississippi College.
The Trichoptera World Checklist is a project of the successive International Symposia on Trichoptera, with the responsibility for its policy and maintenance assigned to the Trichoptera Checklist Coordinating Committee. The current TCCC consists of the following trichopterologists (areas of responsibility -- email addresses):
The list is constantly being updated by Dr. John C. Morse. Authors of taxonomic changes and persons with information about corrections or additions are encouraged to notify Dr. Morse (JMORSE@CLEMSON.EDU) and to send PDFs of publications regarding these matters (postal address, telephone, FAX).

All taxa in the classification hierarchy may be searched, including all synonyms.

The list may be searched by you using the Searchable Fields noted below. Persons needing special searches for information contained in any of the Fields may request them from Dr. Morse.

The Searchable Fields available regarding each Taxon are as follows:


    Taxon/Synonym with Author, Date of Authorship, Bibliographic Reference, and (for species in Changed Combination) Original Genus
    Type Country
    Biogeographic Regions

    Click here to access the Search Page

The database currently lists a count of the valid taxa as follows:

    Extant Families: 63
    Fossil Families: 20
    Extant Genera: 632
    Fossil Genera: 133
    Extant Species: 16267
    Fossil Species: 521
Misidentified species and misspelled names generally are not included.
Names of fossil taxa are preceded by "+". For fossil species, the geologic horizon is shown in parentheses following the name of the type country; also, the abbreviation for the biogeographic region is preceded by "+".
With each species name is shown the type country (if known, otherwise an old national name, region, or geographical feature mentioned as the type locality), and known distribution in the World's Major Biogeographic Regions as follows:
  • AT = Afrotropical
  • AU = Australasian
  • EP = East Palearctic
  • NA = Nearctic
  • NT = Neotropical
  • OL = Oriental
  • WP = West Palearctic
For those type countries now divided into two of the regions above (e.g., People's Republic of China, Mexico, Russia), an indication of the type republic or province or other identifying geographic feature is shown in parentheses. Similarly, for type countries involving two or more major islands (e.g., Indonesia), the type island is named in parentheses.
The limits of the World's Major Biogeographic Regions are still a matter of debate. Indeed, a geographic feature that may be a barrier for one group of organisms may not be a barrier for another. For example, high mountains appear to be a barrier for many groups of insects, but may not be especially so for the caddisflies. For caddisflies, marine and desert regions define more effective geographical constraints. Although the limits of biogeographic regions do not necessarily correspond with political boundaries, these are the boundaries most often recognized, especially in the older literature, and are the basis for many of the following delineations. For purposes of standardization, the following definitions have been used in this Checklist for the indicated World's Major Biogeographic Regions:

The Afrotropical Region (AT) consists of Africa east of the Fernando de Noronha, Trinidade, and South Sandwich Islands; south of Spanish Sahara, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates; east of the Maldive Islands and Chagos Archipelago; and north of Antarctica.

The Australasian Region (AU) is considered here to consist of all lands in the southwestern Pacific region east of Talaud, Sulawesi, Sanana, Damar and Sermata Islands (Weber's Line, as employed by Neboiss, 1986), south of Mindanao, Iwo Jima, Marcus, Johnston, and Hawaii Islands, west of Easter Island, and north of Antarctica.

The Eastern Palearctic Region (EP) consists of all lands east of the Russian Ural mountains and the Caspian Sea; north of Iran, Afghanistan, oriental China and the Japanese island of Amami-o-shima; ; and west of Midway Island, the Aleutian Islands, Saint Lawrence Island, and Alaska.

The Nearctic Region (NA) consists of all lands east of Russian Siberia, Komandorsk Island, and Wake Island; north of Palmyra, Socorro, and St. Benedicto Islands, the Mexican states of Jalisco, Michoacan, Guerrero, Morelos, Puebla, and Veracruz (Bueno-Soria, personal communication), Anguila Isles, and the Greater and Lesser Antilles; and west of The Azores and Iceland.

The Neotropical Region (NT) consists of lands east of Pitcairn and Ducie Islands; south of the Mexican states of Sinaloa, Durango, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi, and Tamaulipas (Bueno-Soria, personal communication), Andros, Great Inagua, and the Bahama and Caicos Islands; west of Cape Verde, Ascension, and Tristan de Cunha Islands; and north of South Orkney, Elephant, and South Shetland Islands.

The Oriental Region (OL) consists of all lands east of Heard, Kerguelen, St. Paul, Amsterdam, Rodriguez, and Seychelles Islands and Iran; south of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the eastern Palearctic Chinese Provinces of Xinjiang and Qinghai (Schmid, 1966), Gansu, Shaanxi, Henan, and Shandung, and the Japanese island of Yakushima; west of Guam, Palau, Halmahera, Obi, Buru, Teun, and Barbar Islands and Australia; and north of Antarctica.

The Western Palearctic Region (WP) consists of lands east of Greenland and Bermuda Island; west of Russian Siberia, Kazakstan, the Caspian Sea, Turkmen, Afghanistan, and Pakistan; and north of Cape Verde Islands, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Yemen, The Democratic Republic of Yemen, and Oman.

No Trichoptera are yet known from Antarctica.