The Mediterranean basin is known to be the cradle of many endemic species. Within mayflies (Insecta, Ephemeroptera), North African species belonging to the family Baetidae remain poorly known and, traditionally, affinities to European fauna were proposed. Recent studies, based on molecular reconstructions, showed closer relationships to Mediterranean islands fauna.
Baetidae were sampled from North-West Algerian wadis (Tafna basin) and involved in COI barcoding reconstructions. Seven species were identified. The subgenus Rhodobaetis is represented by Baetis atlanticus known previously from Macaronesian islands, Europe and Morocco and the Maghrebian endemic Baetis sinespinosus. Specimens, previously identified as Cloeon cf. dipterum, correspond to Cloeon peregrinator and, until now, only reported from Macaronesia. Besides the confirmation of endemicity of some species, such as Procloen stagnicola and B. sinespinosus, our molecular study showed quite original results for relationships between European, insular and Algerian species. Baetis maurus stood out as a North African endemic sister clade to an Iberian clade. Furthermore, we found clear interspecific distances between Algerian and European clades for A. cf. sinaica and B. cf. pavidus, suggesting the presence of cryptic species in Algeria. However, additional studies are needed, as, for the moment, no clear morphological characters were found to separate the different clades and support them as valid species.
We present here a new species of Habrophlebia, H. hassainae sp. nov., described at nymphal, imaginal and egg stages obtained by rearing from the Tafna watershed, North western Algeria. The new species was previously identified as H. cf. fusca by Gagneur Thomas (1988). H. hassainae is in fact more related to H. lauta McLachlan, 1884, but can be separated by different characters on the male imago and nymphs. This is the third species of Habrophlebia reported from North Africa.
Le complexe d'espèces jumelles mariae se développe dans les creux de rocher (rock pools) contenant de l'eau de mer. L'espèce Aedes mariae Sergent & Sergent, 1903 se rencontre sur le pourtour du bassin tyrrhénien et notamment sur la côte rocheuse de l'ouest algérien. Le suivi durant une année de la dynamique de la population a permis de démontrer que le cycle biologique est sensiblement différent de celui observé en Méditerranée septentrionale. La présence de femelles actives aux mois de janvier et février et d'un stock réduit d'oeufs dans les gîtes, montrent que la population d'Ae. mariae des côtes occidentales algériennes adopte une double stratégie de développement. Les éclosions les plus importantes sont enregistrées lorsque la conductivité est comprise entre 52.000 et 75.000 uS.nr 1 résultant d'un apport d'eau de mer et de la concentration en sels sous l'effet de l'évaporation. Les conductivités supérieures à 100.000 uS.nv 1 , entravent l'éclosion des oeufs en favorisant la dessiccation biologique. Demographic kinetics of pre-imaginal populations of Aedes mariae (Diptera : Culicidae) in west Algerian coasts
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