Leptoceridae (Insecta, Trichoptera) from Serra da Canastra Mountain Range, Southeast Brazil: Diversity, Distribution, and Description of Two New Species

The Collapsible Light Trap: a portable Pennsylvania Light Trap for collecting aquatic insects

A Collapsible Light Trap (CLT) for collecting insects, particularly aquatic insects, is described here. CLT is a modified Pennsylvania Light Trap with the advantage of being collapsible and lightweight to be carried in a small backpack and very easy to set up in the field. CLT is equipped with LED light strip wrapped around a PVC tube and can be connected to a regular 12 V / 7 Ah battery, running for more than 48 uninterrupted hours. Complete CLT weighs 0.8-1.0 kg, depending on the metal used, and the battery weighs around 2 kg, being easily transportable to more remote collecting areas. Over the years, CLTs have been used for collecting and describing the diversity of aquatic insects from Brazil, particularly caddisflies. Depending on the locality, only one trap for one night can collect over a thousand insect specimens and more than 200 individuals of caddisflies.

Brevitentoria Weaver 1984 (Trichoptera: Integripalpia) of Esprito Santo State, Brazil: New records and new species

In Brazil, about 900 species of Trichoptera have been recorded, with some species in all Brazilian states. Nevertheless, the collection effort is unequal, with several under-sampled regions. Despite being located entirely within the Atlantic Forest ecoregion, a hotspot of biodiversity, Esprito Santo State has a low known caddisfly richness when compared to nearby areas in the same ecoregion, especially for the infraorder Brevitentoria. This suggests the existence of a Trichoptera biodiversity knowledge gap. Aiming to overcome these taxonomic and distributional shortfalls, we performed a comprehensive inventory of the Brevitentoria species in the state. The sampled sites were distributed from North to South of the state covering 22 locations. In total, 3,420 adult specimens of Brevitentoria were analyzed, leading to a total of 40 species. Two families and 27 species are recorded for the first time from the state. Additionally, we describe three new species of the genera Phylloicus, Helicopsyche (Feropsyche), and Marilia. As a result of this survey, we increase by 100% the number of species of Brevitentoria known from the state, and by 30% for the number of known Trichoptera species. Based on incidence data from this inventory and from the literature, the Brevitentoria species richness was estimated to be about 72 species in Esprito Santo State.

The caddisflies from Serra dos Órgãos National Park, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with the description of two new species of Ochrotrichia Mosely (Trichoptera: Hydroptilidae: Ochrotrichiinae)

The Serra dos Órgãos National Park (PARNASO) is a federal conservation unit located in Rio de Janeiro State, within the Atlantic Forest biome. This biome is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots and has high diversity and endemism of caddisfly taxa. Here, we present a checklist of caddisflies from PARNASO, including the description of two new species of Ochrotrichia Mosely (Hydroptilidae). Ochrotrichia sino sp. nov. and Ochrotrichia papel sp. nov. are assigned to the O. aldama Species Group due to the divided tergum X in male genitalia, although in the first one tergum X is not simple as in most species in this group. Ochrotrichia sino sp. nov. is recognized by tergum X having a broad basal portion bearing a basodorsal spine-like process on the left side and the apical portion with two elongate processes, one curved and crossing the other one underneath. Ochrotrichia papel sp. nov. is distinguished by the elongate inferior appendages, by tergum IX having its posterior margin obliquely emarginate, and tergum X being divided into two processes, the left one longer and almost straight, the right one curved to the left, slightly upturned in lateral view. The list of PARNASO species is based on isolated records in literature and on specimens in the Coleção Entomológica Professor José Alfredo Pinheiro Dutra, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Departamento de Zoologia) [UFRJ (DZRJ)], with samples collected since 2009. A total of 95 species were recorded from the PARNASO, of which eight are new distributional records for Rio de Janeiro State. Hydroptilidae (27 spp.), followed by Hydropsychidae (13 spp.), Leptoceridae, and Philopotamidae (12 spp. each) are the families with highest species richness. Before this work, only about 20 species of caddisflies were formally registered from the park area. In this way, this work is an important contribution to fill the gaps of knowledge caused by “Wallacean” and “Linnean” shortfalls.  

Notalina (Neonotalina) ralphi sp. nov. (Trichoptera, Leptoceridae), a new long-horned caddisfly from the Cerrado biome of Brazil, with new records for N. (Neonotalina) brasiliana Holzenthal, 1986 and an identification key

The long-horned caddisfly genus Notalina Mosely, 1936 contains 27 species divided into two subgenera. The Neotropical N. (Neonotalina) Holzenthal, 1986 occurs exclusively in South America. Its species are organized into two species groups, brasiliana and roraima. Nine species have been recorded so far in Brazil, mainly distributed in the Cerrado and Atlantic Forest biomes of Southeast Region, and only one species has been recorded from the Central-West and Northeast Regions. In this paper a new species of N. (Neonotalina) is described and illustrated based on adult males from two protected and preserved areas in the Cerrado biome of Brazil. Notalina (Neonotalina) ralphisp. nov. belongs to the brasiliana species group and can be recognized mainly by the morphology of the preanal appendages and segment X. New distributional records are provided for N. (Neonotalina) brasiliana Holzenthal, 1986. Additionally, a key to identify males of the ten species in the brasiliana species group is provided.

Taxonomic Catalog of the Brazilian Fauna: order Trichoptera (Insecta), diversity and distribution

Caddisflies are a highly diverse group of aquatic insects, particularly in the Neotropical region where there is a high number of endemic taxa. Based on taxonomic contributions published until August 2019, a total of 796 caddisfly species have been recorded from Brazil. Taxonomic data about Brazilian caddisflies are currently open access at the “Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil” website (CTFB), an on-line database with taxonomic information on the animal species occurring in Brazil. The order Trichoptera at CTFB includes a catalog of species recorded for the country, with synonymic lists, distribution throughout six biomes, 12 hydrographic regions, and 27 political states (including Federal District) from Brazil. The database is constantly updated to include newly published data. In this study, we reviewed the taxonomic effort on Brazilian caddisflies based on data currently in CTFB database. The accumulation curve of species described or recorded from the country, by year, shows a strong upward trend in last 25 years, indicating that it is possible that there are many more species to be described. Based on presence/absence of caddisfly species at three geographic levels (biomes, hydrographic regions, and states), second order Jackknife estimated at least 1,586 species occurring in Brazil (with hydrographic regions as unities), indicating we currently know about 50% of the Brazilian caddisfly fauna. Species distribution by Brazilian biomes reveals that the Atlantic Forest is the most diverse, with 490 species (298 endemic), followed by the Amazon Forest, with 255 species (101 endemic). Even though these numbers may be biased because there has been more intense collecting in these two biomes, the percentage of endemic caddisfly species in the Atlantic Forest is remarkable. Considering the distribution throughout hydrographic regions, clustering analyses (UPGMA) based on incidence data reveals two groups: northwestern basins and southeastern. Although these groups have weak bootstrap support and low similarity in species composition, this division of Brazilian caddisfly fauna could be related to Amazon-Atlantic Forest disjunction, with the South American dry diagonal acting as a potential barrier throughout evolutionary time.