First record of Americabaetis alphus (Insecta: Ephemeroptera: Baetidae) from Colombia

Primer registro de Americabaetis alphus (Insecta: Ephemeroptera: Baetidae) para Colombia

YEISSON GUTIÉRREZ^1,3 and CAMILO A. LLANO^2,3

¹ Programa de Pósgraduação em Entomologia, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Minas Gerais 36570-000, Brazil. gutierrez.yeisson@gmail.com. Corresponding autor.
² Maestría en Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad de Caldas, Manizales, Caldas, Colombia. camiloandresllanoarias@gmail.com.
³ Research group GEBIOME, Universidad de Caldas, Manizales, Caldas, Colombia.

Abstract: The species Americabaetis alphusis recorded for the first time from the Colombian territory based on nymphs collected in Caldas and Huila departments. The species was previously know from several countries in South America and from Nicaragua in Central America.

Key words: Mayflies. Taxonomy. Distribution. Neotropic.

Resumen: Se registra por primera vez para el territorio Colombiano la especie Americabaetis alphusa partir de ninfas colectadas en los departamentos de Caldas, Huila y Tolima. Esta especie había sido registrada para varios países de Suramérica y para Nicaragua en Centroamérica.

Introduction

Baetidae is among the most diverse families of the Ephemeroptera order in the Neotropical region (Barber-James et al. 2008), even so, the knowledge on their taxonomy and distribution in the Colombian territory is incipient with only 18 genera and 26 species recorded (Dias et al. 2009). For the genus Americabaetis Kluge the only species so far recorded is Americabaetis robacki (Lugo-Ortiz & McCafferty, 1994) from the Amazon region (Domínguez et al. 2002). The species Americabaetis alphus Lugo-Ortiz & McCafferty, 1996 was first described based on specimens from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and Paraguay (Lugo-Ortiz & McCafferty 1996); subsequently was reported from Nicaragua by Meyer et al. (2008). Although the presence of this species in northern South America is not unexpected, this record is important as it contributes to the understanding of the distribution and biogeography of these insects. In addition, this report aims to encourage the taxonomic accuracy in the identification of aquatic insects for ecological studies, as these organisms are proven bioindicators of water quality (Cummins et al. 2005; Buss & Salles 2007).

Taxonomic keys by Salles et al. (2010) and Domínguez et al. (2006), original descriptions of Lugo-Ortiz & McCafferty (1996) and permanent mounts of important structures following Waltz & McCafferty (1987) methodology were used for the identification of the specimens housed at the CEBUC (Colección Entomológica del programa de Biología de La Universidad de Caldas, Manizales, Colombia).

This represents the first report of the species A.alphus from Colombia, which can be differentiated from its congeners by the following combination of characters: frontal keel present; lingua apically pointed; labium with glossae 0.8 times the length of paraglossae, segment II of the labial palpi with a b distomedial projection; and posterior margin of abdominal terga with pointed spines (Domíngues et al. 2006). As this species is sexually dichromatic, the males have a pronounced color pattern as shown in Fig.1 while females possess a more discrete pattern ranging from brown to pale yellow.

The species A. alphus has a wide distribution in South and Central America and can be found in very different types of habitats and altitudes (ranging from the sea level to 1,900 m), possibly due to its tolerance to environmental impacts (Salles et al. 2003, Buss & Salles 2007; Salles et al. 2o1o; Falcao et al. 2011). The specimens studied were associated with leaves and stony substrates in two Andean habitats.

Material examined: 4 nymphs. COLOMBIA. Caldas.

Norcasia. Reserva Forestal Río Manso. 5°39'51" N 74°46' 56" W. 187 m. 14/II/2012, Gutiérrez Y., Días L. G., Llano C. A., Benavides J. L. (CEBUC). 3 nymphs. Huila. Neiva. Quebrada Los Micos. 2°52'50 N 75°06'07" W. 1555 m. Cuellar V. L. (CEBUC).

To Vladymeer León Cuellar for allowing the access to part of the reviewed material, and José L. Benavides and Lucimar Dias for the support in the fieldwork.

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Received: 4-Jun-2014
Accepted: 16-Feb-2015

GUTIÉRREZ, Y.; LLANO, C. A. 2015. First record of Americabaetis alphus(Insecta: Ephemeroptera: Baetidae) from Colombia. Revista Colombiana de Entomología 41 (1): 147-148. Enero-Junio 2015. ISSN 0120-0488.