Centroptilum romanicum Bogoescu 1949

Kluge, Nikita J., 2025, Contribution to the knowledge of psammophylous representatives of Procloeon Bengtsson 1915 - Psammonella Glazaczow 1987 and Pseudocentroptiloides Jacob 1987 (Ephemeroptera: Baetidae), Zootaxa 5691 (3), pp. 449-494 : 488

Status of the species name Centroptilum romanicum Bogoescu 1949

The species under the name « Centroptilum romanicum » was described by Bogoescu (1949) based on male and female imagines and subimago collected in region Săcel ( Gorj) in Romania. A list of specimens examined was not given, holotype was not designated, and place of material deposition was not reported. The type specimens are probably lost. Assumption that the male and the female belong to one and the same species, was based on nothing.

Identity of male imago. Figure of male genitalia ( Bogoescu 1949: fig. 5) suggests that the genitalia were deformed due to muscle contraction, so the real shape of gonostyli and unistyligers is unknown. Subsequently, this figure was reproduced in some publications ( Bogoescu 1958: fig. 76B; Keffermüller & Sowa 1984: fig. 34; Bauernfeind & Soldán 2012: fig. 117), but nobody redescribed male imago of this species based on original material.

Identity of female imago. In the original description ( Bogoescu 1949), egg structure was not described. Eggs ascribed to Centroptilum romanicum were described later as following: «Ouăle au corionul prevăzut cu un brîu reticulat mai îngroşat, format din 13 rînduri de ochiuri (fig. 76, D)» (The eggs have a chorion provided with a thicker reticulated girdle, made up of 13 rows of meshes) ( Bogoescu 1958: 126). According to this description and the drawing ( Bogoescu 1958: fig. 76D), the egg structure completely agrees with that of P. shadini ( Figs 213–216 ).

In another publication ( Bogoescu & Tabacaru 1966), Centroptilum romanicum was included in a key for female imagines, and its egg was characterized as «Die Äquatorialzone des Chorions mit 13–15 Warzenreihen» (the equatorial zone of chorion with 13–15 rows of warts). This wordily characteristics also agrees with P. shadini ; but the drawing ( Bogoescu & Tabacaru 1966: fig. 3B) is different from the previous one, with hemispheric warts instead of papillae with apical concavities forming the reticulate relief. Material examined was not reported.

Interpretations of romanicum [ Centroptilum ]. Under the name « Centroptilum romanicum », Keffermüller & Sowa (1984) described a larva of P. macronyx with relatively large dorsal lamellae of tergalii and relatively short claws. This description was based on a single larval specimen from Romania. They also described eggs differently from the eggs described by Bogoescu: also with 13–15 rows of enlarged papillae, but with “single small papillae” in meshes of the dense net-like relief covering the rest surface ( Keffermüller & Sowa 1984: p. 331 and fig. 36).

Figures

FIGURES 213–216. Eggs of Procloeon (Pseudocentroptiloides) shadini. 213–215, under scan electronic microscope (213–214, fragments of destroyed girdle); 216, in transmitted light, slide in Canadian balsam (optic section and surface view combined).