Rhyacopsyche, Mueller, 1879

Rocha, Isabela Cristina, Santos, Allan Paulo Moreira & Nessimian, Jorge Luiz, 2023, Taxonomic diversity of Ochrotrichiinae (Trichoptera: Hydroptilidae) from Peru with the description of ten new species, a new distributional record, and an updated checklist, Zootaxa 5353 (4), pp. 301-331 : 322-323

Genus Rhyacopsyche

This genus is Neotropical in distribution with currently 30 described species ( Thomson 2023). Compared with other Neotropical Ochrotrichiinae , adults may be larger in size, setal warts of the head are variable in shape, and wing venation does not vary much among species. The R1–R3, M1, and M2 veins of forewings are thickened apically and the costal area is sometimes folded over. The male genitalia have segment IX produced into dorsolateral lobes, the subgenital processes are present, and the phallus is often surrounded with a thin membranous sheath covered with spicules ( Wasmund & Holzenthal 2007). According to Flint (1971), species of Rhyacopsyche can be allocated into two species groups, the R. mexicana Group and the R. turrialbae Group. The two new species described here are assigned to the R. mexicana Group, because they have elongate inferior appendages and the subgenital plate is a narrow, ribbon-like sclerite.

The first record of a Peruvian Rhyacopsyche was published by Flint (1975) when describing R. peruviana Flint 1975 . An additional species was described subsequently by Flint (1991), with Wasmund & Holzenthal (2007) describing the majority of the other species. Here we add two new species based on material collected in the Department of Cusco, southern Peru. With this contribution we expand the number of Rhyacopsyche species from Peru to 11.