Similicloeon Kluge & Novikova, 1992

Gattolliat, Jean-Luc, Samraoui, Boudjema, Benhadji, Nadhira, Kechemir, Lina, Zrelli, Sonia, El Yaagoubi, Sara, El Moutaouakil, Majida El Alami & Sartori, Michel, 2023, Baetidae (Baetidae, Ephemeroptera) in the Maghreb: state of the art, key, and perspectives, ZooKeys 1139, pp. 137-163 : 137

10. Similicloeon Kluge & Novikova, 1992

Diagnosis.

1) Gills I-VI with double lamellae, upper lamella much smaller than lower lamella; 2) legs elongated, claw elongated with two rows of small to minute denticles; 3) labial palp conical and truncated; 4) maxillary palp 2-segmented; 5) paracercus subequal in length to cerci; 6) lateral margin of abdominal segments VII to IX with strong spines; 6) cerci without spines on the outer lateral margin.

Remarks.

Similicloeon present intermediate characters between Cloeon and Procloeon ; it may be confused with either of them. It was first considered as a subgenus of Cloeon and was only recently raised to the generic level ( Kluge and Novikova 1992; Kluge 2016). Similicloeon simile (Eaton, 1870) is the single species of the genus known from the Maghreb (Fig. 5E ). No morphological differences or genetic distances were observed between Maghrebian and Central European populations (unpublished data). A restricted part of the reports of Cloeon sp. may represent misidentification of S. simile (as in most previous keys, Similicloeon is not separated from Cloeon ). This species is rarely reported but seems rather widespread across the region ( Boumaiza and Thomas 1995; Khadri et al. 2017; Mabrouki et al. 2017). This species is considered as highly euryhaline ( Boumaiza and Thomas 1995). Based on the variety of colonized habitats, Mabrouki et al. (2017) suggested that the genus is probably not monospecific in Morocco; we have no evidence to confirm or refute this hypothesis.

Figures

Figure 5. Baetidae: larvae in toto in dorsal view A Nigrobaetis numidicus B Nigrobaetis rhithralis C Procloeon stagnicola D Procloeon cf. pennulatum E Similicloeon simile.