Search

Morphological characters of adults and immature stages of Limnephilidae were analyzed with modern phylogenetic techniques, including traditionally used characters and some that have been poorly investigated or never studied. For the first time, monophyly is inferred for the following nominotypical taxa: superfamily Limnephiloidea, family Limnephilidae, subfamily Limnephilinae, tribe Limnephilini, and Limnephilus sensu stricto. Some other higher taxa are distinguished based on high bootstrap support, unreversed synapomorphies, and/or topography, including a new family-group category for Trichoptera, 'Branch,' more inclusive than the family category and less inclusive than the superfamily category. These new taxa in Limnephiloidea are as follows: Brachycentrida New Branch (including families Brachycentridae and Lepidostomatidae), Goerida New Branch (including families Apataniidae, Goeridae, and Rossianidae), Limnephilida New Branch {including Uenoidae, Vergeridae New Family (including Verger), Cryptochiidae New Family (including Cryptochia), Dicosmoecidae Schmid, 1955, New Status [including subfamilies Dicosmoecinae (including Allocosmoecus, Amphicosmoecus, Dicosmoecus, Eocosmoecus, and Onocosmoecus), Archeophylacinae New Subfamily (including Archeophylax, Anomalocosmoecus, Austrocosmoecus, and Platycosmoecus), Nothopsychinae New Subfamily (including Ironoquia and Nothopsyche), and Metacosmoecinae New Subfamily (including Metacosmoecus)], Ecclisomyiidae New Family (including Ecclisomyia), Philocascidae New Family (including Philocasca), and Limnephilidae}. Apart from several basal genera incertae sedis, family Limnephilidae is comprised of subfamilies Pseudostenophylacinae (including Pseudostenophylax), Hydatophylacinae New Subfamily (including Hydatophylax and Pycnopsyche), Drusinae (including Anomalopterygella, Cryptothrix, Drusus, Ecclisopteryx, Hadiminia, Leptodrusus, and Metanoea), Chilostigminae Schmid, 1955, New Status (including Brachypsyche, Chilostigma, Chilostigmodes, Desmona, Frenesia, Glyphopsyche, Grensia, and Psychoglypha), and Limnephilinae. Apart from several basal genera incertae sedis, subfamily Limnephilinae now is comprised of the two tribes Chaetopterygini (including Annitella, Badukiella, Chaetopteroides, Chaetopterygopsis, Chaetopteryx, Chionophylax, Pseudopsilopteryx, and Psilopteryx) and Limnephilini (including Anabolia, Arctopora, Asynarchus, Clistoronia, Colpotaulius, Glyphotaelius, Grammotaulius, Halesochila, Lenarchus, Lepnevaina, Leptophylax, Limnephilus, Nemotaulius, Philarctus, Platycentropus, Rivulophilus, Sphagnophylax, Thermophylax, and several species that are no longer in Limnephilus and will likely be assigned to new genera). Thus, as a result of this analysis, some genera of the former Limnephilidae are transferred to different subfamilies and tribes and the placement of the nominotypical genus Limnephilus and sister genera of the Limnephilus sensu stricto is resolved. Furthermore, only 57 of the 197 species currently included in Limnephilus are recognized as Limnephilus sensu stricto.