Chathamiidae
Family of caddisflies
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Through Australia
Taxonomy
In 1925 Tillyard created the new sub-family Chathamiinae and described the species Chathamia brevipennis from the Chatham Islands. He wrote that this caddisfly is remarkable for the reduced wings and enormous head of adults. The two genera Philanisus and Chathamia were combined into the same family by Riek in 1977. The five species within this family were shown to be closely related using mtDNA sequence.
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Distribution
Found around the coast of New Zealand and in Southern Australia. Two species are endemic to New Zealand with restricted distributions. Kermadecs is home to P. fasciatus and P. mataua is restricted to Northern New Zealand. Chathamia integripennis is found in Northern New Zealand and Southern Australia. Chathamia brevipennis is restricted to the Chatham Islands. In contrast Philanisus plebeius is widespread around the shores of New Zealand.