Meropelopia americana (Fittkau)

Namayandeh, Armin, Bilyj, Bohdan, Beresford, David V., Somers, Keith M. & Dillon, Peter J., 2012, 3324, Zootaxa 3324, pp. 1-65 : 9-10

Meropelopia americana (Fittkau)

Figs 3A–F

Diagnosis. Head yellowish, with pale brown posterior margin, gular sclerite not discernible; maxillary palp ( Fig. 3A) with 2-segmented sensillum b; basal antennal segment 358–398 µm long, 2.0x as long as mandible, AR 4.6–4.9, flagellum as in Fig. 3B; mandible ( Fig. 3C) with small accessory tooth; pseudoradula ( Fig. 3D) parallelsided with about 10 rows of fine granules grading to coarser ones towards base, no wavy lines; ligula ( Fig. 3E) with strongly concave toothed margin, inner laterals slightly out-turned; ventral cephalic setae and VP as in Fig. 3F; body with scattered setae about as long as subtending segment.

Notes. The only character separating Meropelopia from Thienemannimyia and Hayesomyia is the higher A1/M ratio. The pigmentation of posterior margin of head capsule used in Epler’s (2001) key was found to be unreliable in separating the above genera. The morphometrics used in Roback (1981) to separate the two Meropelopia species does appear to hold up with M. americana being the larger of the two. Another distinguishing character is the form of the psudoradula as described for each species. Pupae collected were also identified by the presence of well developed mesonotal tubercle (absent in the adult) and long lanceolate setae on abdominal segments V–VIII. It is surprisingly similar to Conchapelopia rurika Roback , but the latter doesn’t have the developed mesonotal tubercle.

Ecology and habitat. The species has been reported to occur in streams with pH 4.1–7.0 (X = 5.64) and water temperature of 9–18 °C (X = 15.9°C) ( Roback 1981). Larvae were common in all habitats of the study streams but mainly occurred in moss and leaf packs.

Sampling sites. We found the larvae inhabiting streams in all the provincial parks and districts located in our study area.

Nearctic distribution. First published record for Canada: Ontario . USA: Connecticut, Georgia, Kansas, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee .