Steven Beaty was kind enough to examine the Uenoids I found at the upper Doyles River last week and share his findings with me. The identity remains uncertain. Most likely, they are Neophylax concinnus or Neophylax toshioi.
The larva lacks clavate gills on abdominal segment 1, but it has lateral gills on segments 2-4. It also has a blunt, frontoclypeal tubercle which we can see in this microscope photo.
In favor of N. concinnus is the fact that I've found that species lower down in the Doyles earlier in the year. However, the head of N. concinnus is usually uniform in color -- "uniformly orange yellow to orange brown" (Vineyard, et.al., The Caddisfly Genus Neophylax, p. 11). The head of our larva is light in the back but dark in the front.
In favor of N. toshioi -- and I'm following Beaty -- is the overall pattern of the head as well as the location of the lateral gills. Against N. toshioi as the ID is the lack of a pale line on the side of the head from the eye to the base of the mandible -- though such a line could be developing here -- and the fact that N. toshioi is not supposed to be located this far north in Virginia.
So there you have it. N. toshioi would be an addition to our EPT list, but we can't be sure that's what this is. Well, what these are since I found two.
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