The Limnephilidae is one of the most species-rich Trichoptera families of northern temperate regions, but only a few are known from tropical areas and the Southern Hemisphere.

The adults are usually brown in colour, often with narrow mottled or patterned forewings and much broader, transparent hindwings.

The aquatic larvae construct portable cases from a wide variety of plant and mineral materials, sometimes even snail shells.

Larvae tend to be eruciform (with a thickset head and thorax), rather slow-moving, and usually feed by browsing algae or scavenging animal remains.

The family includes one extraordinary aberrant genus, Enoicyla, whose larvae are terrestrial, living among moss and leaf litter.