Diplectroninae Ulmer 1951
Creators: name: Wells, Alice
name: Contents, Arturs Neboiss Table Of
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Trichoptera
Hydropsychidae

description: Subfamily Diplectroninae Ulmer
Diplectroninae Ulmer 1951: 173, 175, 303.
When first established, three genera were included in the subfamily: Diplectrona, Diplectronella Ulmer 1928, and Sciops McLachlan 1866. Ulmer (1951, 174) also suggested that a further five genera, including Austropsyche probably belong in the subfamily; subsequently Austropsyche was referred to Diplectroninae. More recently, several diplectronine genera have been synonymised with Diplectrona: Diplectronella by Flint (2001) and Sciops (as well as another genus, Diplex Mosely 1951) by Malicky (2002); and further genera have been assigned to the subfamily: Homoplectra Ross 1938, Oropsyche Ross 1941, Sciadorus Barnard 1934 (see Morse 2017), and Diemeniluma Neboiss 2003. Since recent molecular analyses suggest that Diplectroninae genera are paraphyletic (Geraci et al. 2005; Stocks 2011), the diagnosis given here, based on only morphological features, must be regarded as tentative. It is adequate currently for Australian taxa and, as noted above, could also include the genus Smicrophylax which, contra Neboiss (1977), also has an anteromesal wart on the head.
Diagnosis (modified after Ulmer 1951, 167). Distinguished from other Hydropsychidae subfamilies by sternite V with a pair of filaments apicolaterally; male abdomen with two pairs of reticulate-walled, internal glandular structures; hind wings large, rounded, with Sc and R l more or less bowed distally; and antennae appearing to be crenate, due to median sutures and/or tufts of setae on some segments (Figs 25, 26, 80, 152).
Description (modified after Nimmo 1987). Medium to large. Wings generally large; wide basally, rounded or angular distally. Antennae equal in length to forewings, or slightly longer. Cephalic warts less prominent than in Macronematinae; posterior pair large, oval; anterolateral pair often divided; anteromesal [interantennal] wart small, round. Thorax large, robust. Male foreleg tarsal claws normal, equal, not overhung by setal tufts. Tarsi of middle leg of female rarely expanded, may be flattened (Smicrophylax). Spur formula 2,4,4. Forewing Sc and R1 complete, unfused, or joined distally; often robust; discoidal and median cells small, subequal, closed; forks fI–fV present; fI, fIII, and fV petiolate; thyridial cell closed, in contact with median. Hind wing often widened at midpoint; Sc and R1 distinct throughout; discoidal cell closed, elongate; fII, fIII, and fV present; median cell open.
Male. Genitalia: tergum X roof-like dorsal of aedeagus; fused entirely or partially with segment IX; with or without wart-like preanal appendages, with or without lateral processes. Sternite IX with or without processes at apicolateral angles. Aedeagus simple or complex, curved, basally expanded, with or without spines or spicules. Gonopods (claspers or inferior appendages) long, each of 2 articles, basal coxopodite, distal harpago, harpago usually shorter than coxopodite, sometimes bilobed.
Female. Terminal abdomen bluntly rounded; segment X with or without clasper receptacles, if present, not prominent; cerci prominent between two pairs of tubercles (papillae, protuberances).
Remarks. Australia has a number of species that accord with the above definition of Diplectroninae. The problems arise in deciding identity and limitations of genera that occur in Australia. The species of Austropsyche form a recognisable set, defined by the autapomorphic mesal process on the coxopodite of each male gonopod, and the form of the dorsal setal warts on the head. Smicrophylax can be defined by the fused harpago and coxopodite on each male gonopod; this genus is not dealt with here. Another set can be separated on the basis of the anterolateral warts on the head being divided to form two almost equal, laterally elongate warts separated by well-pronounced sutures; these species also share the characteristic of having one or two lateral lobes on the distal margin of abdominal segments IX/X. They are assigned here to a new genus, Arcyphysa gen. nov. Of the remainder, as noted above, Diemeniluma is not separable from members of another set, currently referred to Diplectrona. The phallic apparatus of most Australian species of Diplectrona bear spines or spicules of some form.
An enigmatic species from north-eastern Australia (two specimens are available, one each in NMV and ANIC) conforms to diplectronine genera in having two pairs of reticulate-walled sacs in the abdomen and paired filaments laterally on abdominal segment 5. However, unlike all other Australian diplectronines, this species has the hind wing quite narrow, the wing shape and venation resembling that of Cheumatopsyche modica, with the forewing vein A1 parallel to the wing margin, and the hind wing lacking fork 1 and the median cell; the head warts resemble those of Diplectrona. This species is not dealt with here.
For most species reviewed here, few specimens are available in collections, which suggests that they may be rare; few Australian diplectronine species have been collected in large numbers at any time. An exception is Austropsyche acuta sp. nov., adults of which were abundant at lights set beside a small permanent stream in northeastern New South Wales in December 2006 and 2017. Some of the other hydropsychids are often abundant, for example, Cheumatopsyche species in parts of Australia.
description: Published as part of Wells, Alice & Contents, Arturs Neboiss Table Of, 2018, Australian Diplectroninae reviewed (Insecta: Trichoptera), with description of 21 new species, most referred to a new genus, pp. 1-44 in Zootaxa 4415 (1) on pages 5-6, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4415.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/1241736