Search

The objective of this study was a preliminary evaluation of the adult Trichoptera (Insecta) fauna of Omar Torrijos Herrera General Division National Park, comparing collection methods and local/reg...

Herein we add twelve first country records to Panama’s macrocaddisfly fauna (Insecta: Trichoptera): Calamoceratidae—Banyallarga acutiterga (Denning & Hogue 1983); Glossosomatidae—Protoptila bicornuta Flint 1963 and Protoptila jolandae Holzenthal & Blahnik 2006; Helicopsychidae—Helicopsyche rentzi Denning & Blickle 1979; Hydropsychidae—Calosopsyche sandrae (Flint 1967) and Smicridea acuminata Flint 1974; Leptoceridae—Oecetis hastapulla Quinteiro & Holzenthal 2017; Philopotamidae—Chimarra angustipennis Banks 1903; Polycentropodidae—Polyplectropus exilis Chamorro-Lacayo & Holzenthal 2004; and Xiphocentronidae—Caenocentron immaculatum Flint 1991, Caenocentron lausus Schmid 1982, and Xiphocentron alcmeon Schmid 1982.

The Rio Caldera occupies the northernmost subbasin of the Rio Chiriqui watershed area. Two of its tributaries, Quebrada Grande and Quebrada Jaramillo, occur in close proximity and on opposi...

Through 2014, 73 species of microcaddisflies (Trichoptera: Hydroptilidae) were recorded from Panama. From 2015 to the present, an additional 91 species have been discovered. The reasons for this increase include more intensive collecting, repeated sampling over time at the same locations, and use of multiple collecting techniques. For the countries from Mexico to Colombia, only Mexico, Panama, and Costa Rica have been significantly collected. Calculation of Jaccard Similarity values amongst these three countries indicates little similarity amongst their hydroptilid faunas (all less than 10%). The affinity of Panama with other neighbouring regions is greatest within Central America and with Mexico. Based on recent work (2015–2017), we project a minimum of 300 microcaddisfly species and 550 total caddisfly species will be recorded for Panama within the next 10 years. At present, the greatest need is for training of native Panamanians in caddisfly systematics and biogeography.

Based on examination of ~180,000 specimens from 695 collections of 443 localities collected from the 1930s to 2015 we report 295 species of caddisflies from Michigan. Of these, 41 are reported from the state for the first time. Another 18 species previously reported from Michigan are listed as doubtful. The 11 most abundant species collectively represented over half of all specimens collected. Conversely, 80 species were known from 80-year collecting history, it is likely that additional species remain undiscovered in the state.

Two new species of Anacroneuria are described. Anacroneuria bandido sp. n. is described from Coclé and Veraguas provinces of central Panama, and A. tuberculata sp. n. is proposed to provide a new name for a species previously identified from Costa Rica as A. magnirufa Jewett, 1958. New locality records are presented for eight species previously reported from Panama. The female of one species from Bocas del Toro province is described under an informal designation. There are now 26 recognized species of Plecoptera known from Panama.

There have been 179 species of microcaddisflies (Trichoptera: Hydroptilidae) recorded from the Republic of Panama. Herein we describe 6 new species from Mount Totumas Cloud Forest and biological reserve, in the Rio Colorado watershed ( Leucotrichia cultrata, Metrichia akidion, M. plax, Ochrotrichia alma, O. paxilla, and O. petersoni ). In addition, we describe 1 species under an informal designation and report 4 new country records for Panama from this location ( Metrichia angulosa Bueno-Soria and Holzenthal, M. mechuda Bueno-Soria and Holzenthal, M. meta Bueno-Soria and Holzenthal, and M. truncata Bueno-Soria and Holzenthal), which were known previously only from Costa Rica. These results are part of an ongoing effort to characterize the aquatic insect fauna of Panama, and to evaluate that country’s major watersheds. There are now 449 species of Trichoptera known from Panama distributed in 15 families and 52 genera, including 189 species of microcaddisflies.

Two new species of Anacroneuria (A. chiriqui sp. n. and A. ngabe sp. n.) are described from Chiriqui Province, Panama, and compared with related species. One new country record, A. divisa (Navás), is herein recorded and new locality records are presented for several species previously reported from Panama. Three unassociated females, including one species from Bocas del Toro province are described under informal designations. There are now 25 described species of Plecoptera known from Panama.

Background We provide volume II of a distributional atlas of aquatic insects for the eastern USA state of Ohio. This treatment of stoneflies (Plecoptera) is companion to Armitage et al. (2011) on caddisflies (Trichoptera). We build on a recent analysis of Ohio stonefly diversity patterns based on large drainages (DeWalt et al. 2012), but add 3717 new records to the data set. We base most analyses on the United States Geological Survey Hierarchical Unit Code eight (HUC8) drainage scale. In addition to distributional maps for each species, we provide analyses of species richness versus HUC8 drainage area and the number of unique locations in a HUC8 drainage, species richness versus Ohio counties, analyze adult presence phenology throughout the year, and demonstrate stream size range affiliation for each species. New information This work is based on a total of 7797 specimen records gathered from 21 regional museums, agency data, personal collections, and from the literature Table 1. To our knowledge this is the largest stonefly data set available for a similarly sized geopolitical area anywhere in the world. These data are made available as a Darwin Core Archive supported by the Pensoft Integrated Publishing Toolkit (DeWalt et al. 2016b). All known published papers reporting stoneflies from Ohio are detailed in Suppl. material 1. We recovered 102 species from Ohio, including all nine Nearctic families Table 2​. Two species were removed from the DeWalt et al. (2012) list and two new state records added. Perlidae (32 spp.) was most speciose, compared to the low diversity Pteronarcyidae (2 spp.) and Peltoperlidae (1 sp.). The richest HUC8 drainages occurred in northeastern, south-central, and southern regions of the state where drainages were heavily forested, had the highest slopes, and were contained within or adjacent to the unglaciated Allegheny and Appalachian Plateaus. Species poor drainages occurred mainly in the northwestern region where Wisconsinan aged lake plains climaxed to an expansive wooded wetland, the Black Swamp. The unglaciated Lower Scioto drainage (72 spp.) in south-central Ohio supported the greatest species richness. There was no relationship between species richness and HUC8 drainage size, but the number of unique locations in a drainage strongly related to species richness. All Ohio counties were represented in the data set with Hocking County (59 spp.) of the Lower Scioto drainage being the richest and most heavily sampled. Adult presence phenology was influenced by phylogenetic relationships such that the superfamily Nemouroidea (Capniidae, Leuctridae, Nemouridae, and Taeniopterygidae) generally emerged in winter and spring while the superfamilies Pteronarcyoidea (Pteronarcyidae, Peltoperlidae) and Perloidea (Chloroperlidae, Perlidae, Perlodidae) emerged later, some species continuing emergence through summer months. Species often occupied specific stream size ranges, while others were generalists. Two species once histrorically abundant in the western Lake Erie Bass Islands no longer reside there. Each of the 102 species is discussed in detail, including several that require additional collecting efforts to confirm their identities, presence, and distribution in Ohio.

Although the caddisfly genus Rhyacophila (Trichoptera: Rhyacophilidae) is exceptionally species-rich in southern and southeastern Asia, only 3 species were previously recorded from Borneo, 2 from Sabah and 1 from Sarawak. Examination of caddisfly specimens collected by the 1st author in 1986 through 1989 for the Leiden Museun (The Netherlands) has revealed 4 new species of Rhyacophila . Three of these, R. bintil , n. sp.; R. ladam , n. sp.; and R. lepoh , n. sp. are assigned to the Rhyacophila curvata Group. The 4th species, R. kuku , n. sp., although having affinities with the Rhyacophila lieftincki Group, is currently designated as incertae sedis within the genus. Finally, the female of R. argentipunctella Kimmins is described for the first time, and the species reported from Sabah.

Phryganopsychidae (Trichoptera) is a monotypic family found exclusively in Asia. Phryganopsyche wigginsi, new species is described from Vietnam. This is the fourth species recorded for the genus and the second species reported for Vietnam.

Currently, 20 species of the genus Rhyacophila are known from Vietnam. Of these, 17 species are distributed among eight species groups, with three species unassigned. Examination of material collected by personnel of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada has revealed six new species and five new records of Rhyacophila from Vietnam, distributed among six species groups, four of which are new to Vietnam. Newly described species include: Rhyacophila smithi, Rh. curriei, Rh. laocai, Rh. meyi, Rh. olahi, and Rh. fernandi. Rhyacophila bidens Kimmins, Rh. inaequalis Denning and Schmid, Rh. lhabu Schmid, Rh. malayana Banks, and Rh. rhombica Martynov are recorded from Vietnam for the first time. The females of four species, Rh. bidens, Rh. immaculata Mey, Rh. malayana Banks, and Rh. tamdaona Olah, are described for the first time. All 31 species of Rhyacophila now known from Vietnam are included in this work, organized by branch and species group.

Interest by land-management and regulatory agencies in using biological indicators to detect wetland degradation, coupled with ongoing use of this approach to assess water quality in streams, led to the desire to develop and evaluate an Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) for wetlands that could be used to categorize the level of degradation. We undertook this challenge with data from coastal wetlands of the Great Lakes, which have been degraded by a variety of human disturbances. We studied six barrier beach wetlands in western Lake Superior, six drowned-river-mouth wetlands along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, and six open shoreline wetlands in Saginaw Bay of Lake Huron. Plant, fish, and invertebrate communities were sampled in each wetland. The resulting data were assessed in various forms against gradients of human disturbance to identify potential metrics that could be used in IBI development. Our results suggested that the metrics proposed as potential components of an IBI for barrier beach wetlands of Lake Superior held promise. The metrics for Lake Michigan drowned-river-mouth wetlands were inconsistent in identifying gradients of disturbance; those for Lake Huron open embayment wetlands were yet more inconsistent. Despite the potential displayed by the Lake Superior results within the year sampled, we concluded that an IBI for use in Great Lakes wetlands would not be valid unless separate scoring ranges were derived for each of several sequences of water-level histories. Variability in lake levels from year to year can produce variability in data and affect the reproducibility of data collected, primarily due to extreme changes in plant communities and the faunal habitat they provide. Substantially different results could be obtained in the same wetland in different years as a result of the response to lake-level change, with no change in the level of human disturbance. Additional problems included limited numbers of comparable sites, potential lack of undisturbed reference sites, and variable effects of different disturbance types. We also evaluated our conclusions with respect to hydrologic variability and other major natural disturbances affecting wetlands in other regions. We concluded that after segregation of wetland types by geographic, geomorphic, and hydrologic features, a functional IBI may be possible for wetlands with relatively stable hydrology. However, an IBI for wetlands with unpredictable yet recurring influences of climate-induced, long-term high water periods, droughts, or drought-related fires or weather-related catastrophic floods or high winds (hurricanes) would also require differing scales of measurement for years that differ in the length of time since the last major natural disturbance. A site-specific, detailed ecological analysis of biological indicators may indeed be of value in determining the quality or status of wetlands, but we recommend that IBI scores not be used unless the scoring ranges are calibrated for the specific hydrologic history pre-dating any sampling year.

The authors acknowledge the financial assistance of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, MidContinental Ecology Division through interagency agreement 14480009931945 granted to Douglas A. Wilcox. The U.S. Geological Survey - Biological Resources Division also provided funds for the development of an index of biotic integrity for Laurentian Great Lakes wetlands. The analyses reported herein are a portion of that effort. This publication is Contribution 1047 of the U.S.G.S. Great Lakes Science Center.

Cephalopsyche, a new genus of caddisfly (Trichoptera, Odontoceridae), is described from Vietnam. Two new species are placed in the genus: Cephalopsyche gorgona sp. n. and Cephalopsyche neboissi sp. n. The adult male and female of each species exhibit distinct sexual dimorphism, especially in head morphology. In males, there are hinged, chamber-like structures on the vertex of the head, containing filamentous, columnar tissue when exposed. Descriptions and illustrations of both species are provided.

Abundance and distribution patterns of the caddisflies of the St. Clair-Detroit River system were investigated in 1983–84. Collections of both adults and larvae yielded 70 species representing 34 genera and 12 families. Leptoceridae and Hydroptilidae were the most common families and Ceraclea the most common genus in number of species. This study adds 21 species to the Michigan record. The hydropsychids Cheumatopsyche (81, 63, 105 m−2; log-transformed values for mean and lower and upper 95% C.L.) and Hydropsyche (70, 57, 87 m−2) were the most abundant genera collected as larvae in the St. Clair and Detroit rivers, while Oecetis (41, 35, 47 m−2) was the most abundant in Lake St. Clair. Larval densities of caddisflies in the Detroit River were about twice those in the St. Clair River, but the number of genera collected in each river was about equal (22 vs. 23). Larval abundances were higher in October than May because most genera had substantial overwinter population declines. Low densities and species richness in some areas of the St. Clair-Detroit River system may reflect in part continued water quality problems, but community structure has markedly improved and representation of pollution-sensitive organisms has increased over a 12–15 year period.

Members of the Rhyacophila lieftincki Group (Trichoptera: Rhyacophilidae) share distinctive characters in both the adult (Schmid 1970) and larval forms (Smith 1984). In males, segment IX is short ventrally, with the apico-dorsal portion forming a large, usually triangular lobe over segment X. Segment X is somewhat reduced in height, slightly oblique to the base, and bearing small, claw- or toothlike points at its posterior end. Anal sclerites are vestigial or lacking in about half the species, and usually without roots. The phallotheca and endotheca are reduced, and the dorsal appendage of the phallic apparatus is absent. In the larva, the anal proleg has an apicolateral spur that arises independently of the lateral sclerites. The anal claw has a comb-like row of minute teeth ventrally and tergite IX has anterolateral angles extended ventrally to near the sternum.