Trichopteran fauna of a hydrographic basin with a complex geological history (Umbria – Central Italy)

Abstract

-We set the first comprehensive inventory of Trichoptera species from the Topino River basin (Umbria, Italy), based on research carried out from 1947 to 2006 at 61 lotic sites (including rheocrenous and rheolimnocrenous springs and watercourses) and 1 lentic site (marsh). In total, 78 species and 5 subspecies from 17 families were collected. The species belong to several chorological categories. The inventory comprises 16 species and 5 subspecies endemic to the Italian fauna with Rhyacophila italica, Drusus camerinus, Drusus improvisus and Allogamus ausoniae limited to the central Apennines. The presence of Beraeodes minutus and Erotesis baltica in the Fonti del Clitunno and Wormaldia pulla marlieri in the Fergia River is noteworthy because they are rare species in Italy. Almost 60 years of research now allow us to draw a synthesis of Trichoptera diversity and distribution in light of the geological history at the drainage basin level.

Wheeler’s dilemma revisited: first Oecophylla–Lasius syninclusion and other ants syninclusions in the Bitterfeld amber (late Eocene)

“…This abundance of Beraeodes in the Bembridge Marls does not contradict the idea of periodic flooding of soils in these habitats where Oecophylla dominated. Interestingly, in one of the southernmost localities of extant Beraeodes, the MAT is the same as is estimated for the Bembridge Marls (Corallini et al, 2015).…”

“…Beraeodes dominates as 90% of caddisfly specimens in the late Eocene Bembridge Marls (Sukatsheva, 2014), where Oecophylla strongly dominates ants (Dlussky, Rasnitsyn, 2007;Dlussky, Perfilieva, 2014). The single extant Beraeodes species inhabits cold streams, the inflow to lakes, and other water bodies (Czachorowski, 1998;Corallini et al, 2015), where its larvae live on exposed underwater roots of plants along river banks and in lakes (Ivanov et al, 2001). This abundance of Beraeodes in the Bembridge Marls does not contradict the idea of periodic flooding of soils in these habitats where Oecophylla dominated.…”