Philanisus plebeius
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
Philanisus plebeius is a species of marine caddisfly in the family Chathamiidae found in New Zealand and Australia. These insects have winged terrestrial adults, eggs are laid in starfish and aquatic larvae live in marine rock pools.
This species was first described by Francis Walker in 1852 from a single adult male specimen obtained by Dr. Sinclair from New Zealand. 'Plebeius' means common. Brauer described the same species in 1866 and pointed out the unusual maxillary palpi of males where the insertion of the third joint is well before the apex. F. W. Hutton discovered the larvae live in rock-pools in 1882.
Walker in his original description described this species as follows: Male. — Tawny, thinly clothed with tawny hairs : antennae testaceous, rather stout, slightly setaceous, much longer than the body : legs testaceous, long; fore-tibiae without spurs; hinder tibiae with two pairs of long spurs, one pair near the tips, the other at the tips : abdomen with two appendages at the tip : wings narrow; fore-wings slightly gray, with pale brown marks or interrupted bands : hind-wings subhyaline. Length of the body 2+1⁄2 — 2+3⁄4 lines; of the wings 7... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rakiura National Park | 🇳🇿 New Zealand |
More parks will be added in future updates.
No species of the same family or order lives in Rakiura National Park, so these are its closest relatives here: other insects.
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Common Marine Caddisfly sighting in Rakiura National Park on a given day, based on 15 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 64th most-seen of the 118 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June and December
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Common Marine Caddisfly in Rakiura National Park on a given day, against under 5% in April–May and July–October, the lowest months.
Between 5 and 8 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Common Marine Caddisfly sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Rakiura National Park, in our data
Rakiura National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Common Marine Caddisfly sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Common Marine Caddisfly is recorded against all the insects logged in Rakiura National Park (15 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
