Nigrobaetis, Novikova & Kluge, 1987

Zrelli, Sonia, Boumaiza, Moncef, Bejaoui, Mustapha, Gattolliat, Jean-Luc & Sartori, Michel, 2011, New reports of mayflies (Insecta: Ephemeroptera) from Tunisia, Revue suisse de Zoologie 118 (1), pp. 3-10 : 7-8

Nigrobaetis rhithralis ( Soldán & Thomas, 1983)

Baetis rhithralis Soldán & Thomas, 1983

Diphetor rhithralis: Waltz et al., 1994

Nigrobaetis rhithralis: Lugo-Ortiz & de Moor, 2000

Baetis rhithralis: Jacob, 2003

MATERIAL EXAMINED: loc. 2 ( Ziatine 30 IV 06) . – loc. 3 ( Béja 27-III-2006) . – loc. 7 ( Labgâa 31-III-2006) . – loc. 11 ( Ellil 27-VII-2005, 30-IV-2006) . – loc. 17 ( Ksar Mezouar 24-X- 2005) .

REMARKS: The concept of the genus Nigrobaetis is discussed by Waltz et al. (1994) and Gattolliat (2004). Thirty one species are known with 14 in the Palearctic region ( Waltz et al., 1994; Waltz & McCafferty, 1997; Lugo-Ortiz & de Moor, 2000).

The generic attribution of Nigrobaetis rhithralis was subject of several changes. It does not belong to Diphetor as cited by El Alami et al. (2000) because it lacks the distinctive bifid prostheca of the right mandible characteristic of that genus ( Lugo- Ortiz & de Moor, 2000). The distribution of Diphetor is restricted to the North of the Nearctic area (Lugo-Ortiz & de Moor, 2000). Müller-Liebenau (1969) divided the genus Baetis in several species groups, a part of them subsequently raised to subgeneric or generic level. The attempt of Jacob (2003) to gather again genera such as Nigrobaetis , Alainites and Labiobaetis into Baetis is no more tenable as Müller- Liebenau’s concept of Baetis has been proven to be highly polyphyletic ( Monaghan et al., 2005; Gattolliat & Sartori, 2008). Nigrobaetis rhithralis perfectly matches the concept of Nigrobaetis as defined in Waltz et al. (1994).

The presence of the genus Nigrobaetis (first record) and the species N. rhithralis in Tunisia is not surprising as this species was originally described from Algeria and was subsequently reported from Morocco ( El Alami et al., 2000).