Oecetis crosslandi, Wells, 2004

Wells, Alice, 2004, The long-horned caddisfly genus Oecetis (Trichoptera: Leptoceridae) in Australia: two new species groups and 17 new species, Memoirs of Museum Victoria 61 (1), pp. 85-110 : 107

Oecetis crosslandi sp. nov.

Figures 94, 98–100, 131

Material examined. Holotype male, Qld , Gunshot Creek at Telegraph Crossing, 11°44'S 142°29'E, 4–5 Apr 1992, M. Crossland ( ANIC) . Paratypes. 2 males, Qld: Heathlands, 11°45'S 142°35'E, T. Weir ( ANIC) .

Diagnosis. Forewing broad, length about 3 times width; fork 2 sessile and wing veins strongly pronounced, but without bulge in vein Cu1a. In male genitalia a single heavily sclerotised dorsal paramere with a group of teeth and spikes subapically.

Description. Wings broad, veins pronounced; forewing (Fig. 94) apex rounded, fork 1 sessile, Cu1a almost straight. Male forewing, 5.3 mm. In male genitalia (Figs 98–100), abdominal segment IX ventrally about 3 times middorsal length; preanal appendages elongate, length about 4 times width, apically rounded. Tergite X comprising a slender, elongate median lobe dorsal to a short rounded membranous plate. Inferior appendages broad-based, in ventral view sharply constricted on mesial margin, tapered to narrow apices, in lateral view with a short dorsal lobe. Phallus slender, downcurved in distal third, laterally on right, an elongate heavily sclerotised paramere with a subapical twist below a cluster of teeth and spikes.

Distribution. Northern Cape York, Qld (Fig. 131).

Remarks. One can only speculate on which features of O. digitata , O. ancala and O. crosslandi are homoplasious. I have assumed here, tentatively, that the synapomorphy for the group is the unusual form of the wing, which is shared by the New Guinean O. longiterga and at least one other New Guinean species (see Chen, 1992). However, Oecetis longiterga has a pair of internal parameres in the phallus, which feature could otherwise place it in the O. pechana -group; O. ancala and the New Guinea species of Chen’s unpublished work have paired external parameres, somewhat similar to the arrangement in the O. complexa -group species ( Wells, 2000); and O. digitata has the phallus simple, without parameres, which is characteristic of the O. laustra -group.

Etymology. Named for Michael Crossland.