Potamanthellus caenoides Ulmer 1939

Selvakumar, C., Sivaramakrishnan, K. G. & Janarthanan, S., 2015, A new record of Potamanthelluscaenoides Ulmer 1939 (Ephemeroptera: Neoephemereidae) from the southern Western Ghats of India, Biodiversity Data Journal 3, pp. 5021-5021 : 5021

Potamanthellus caenoides Ulmer 1939

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: individualCount: 7; sex: male & female; lifeStage: Larva; Taxon: kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Ephemeroptera; family: Neoephemeridae; genus: Potamanthellus; specificEpithet: caenoides; taxonRank: species; taxonomicStatus: accepted; Location: country: INDIA; stateProvince: Kerala; municipality: Silent Valley National Park; locality: Poochipara ; verbatimElevation: 935 m; verbatimLatitude: 11°06 ’49.5” N; verbatimLongitude: 76°25 ’52.4” E; Identification: identifiedBy: C. Selvakumar & K. G. Sivaramakrishnan; Event: samplingProtocol: Hand picking; year: 2013; month: April; day: 18; habitat: Cascade

Diagnosis

Potamanthellus caenoides is distinguished from other species of Potamanthellus by the following combination of characters in larvae: (i) a distinct diagonal ridge on operculate gills (Fig. 1); (ii) distinct tubercles on abdominal terga 6-8 (Fig. 1); (iii) dorsal forefemora with transverse row of setae (Fig. 2); (iv) relatively small body size (<8 mm) (Fig. 1) and (v) relatively short caudal filaments that possess strongly developed lateral setae (Fig. 1). P. caenoides is distinguished from closely related species P. ganges by the following characters: (i) posteromedian tubercle on abdominal terga 1-2 and 6-8 distinct (Fig. 1); (ii) rows of hairlike setae strongly developed and mature body ca. 6-8 mm (Fig. 1) and (iii) dorsal forefemora with transverse row of setae (Fig. 2).

Distribution

Indonesia (Sumatra ( Ulmer 1939), Java, Bali, Lombok and Flores), Malaysia (Malay peninsula, Sabah and Sarawak), Philippines (Mindanao), Thailand ( Bae 1998), Vietnam ( Nguyen and Bae 2003) and India (southern Western Ghats).

Biology

The larvae of P. caenoides occur in moderately fast flowing mountain streams and rivers ranging 850-935 m in altitude. The streams and rivers are canopied by predominant riparian trees. The substrates consist of relatively coarse particles (boulder 30%, cobble 20%, pebble 20% and gravel and sand 30%), fallen leaves and detritus. The water temperature in April ranges 18-23°C. Larvae were collected by Kick samples and hand picking.

Taxon discussion

Presently this genus consists of seven species viz. P. amabilis ( Eaton 1892), P. caenoides ( Ulmer 1939), P. chinensis ( Hsu 1936), P. edmundsi ( Bae 1998), P. ganges ( Bae 1998), P. shaowuensis ( Gui et al. 1999) and P. unicutibius ( Nguyen and Bae 2003). However, only one species viz., P. ganges is known from India from the tributary of Ganges ( Bae 1998). P. caenoides ( Ulmer 1939) is new record from the southern Western Ghats and second species from India.