A new charismatic Caenis Stephens, 1835 (Ephemeroptera: Caenidae) from Southern India

Abstract

Caenis americani sp. nov. is described based on larvae and female imagoes from the Mangalamkombu stream of Southern India. Caenis americani is most likely a parthenogenetic species, in the light of the fact that only females have been collected. The larva can be distinguished from other species of Caenis by the i) shape of the sternum IX and its shagreen field, ii) shape and denticulation of hind claws and iii) lateral lobes of mesonotum distinctly bulged. The phylogenetic relationships of the new species remain unknown, as molecular records of Caenis throughout the Oriental region are largely unknown, and the taxonomically important males are absent.

Genetic diversity and phylogenetic analysis of mayfly Caenis (Insecta: Ephemeroptera) using Cytochrome C Oxidase I (COI) and 12s rRNA genes from Thailand

“…Specimens were stored in 95% ethanol. The morphological structures of Caenis larvae were identified to the lowest taxonomic level under the stereomicroscope, light microscope and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) using suitable taxonomical literature of Caenis in the last three decades Yang 1994, 1996;Tong and Dudgeon 2002;Sangpradub and Boonsoong 2006;Jia et al 2010;Malzacher 2013Malzacher , 2015Malzacher and Sangpradub 2021;Muthukatturaja and Balasubramanian 2021;Srinivasan et al 2021).…”

“…Kang and Yang (1994) reported the nymphal stages of seven new species of Caenidae in Taiwan. Since 2013, thirty-tree new Caenis species have been described from Thailand, Indonesia, India and Vietnam (Malzacher 2013;Malzacher 2015;Malzacher and Sangpradub 2017;Muthukatturaja and Balasubramanian 2020;Malzacher 2021;Malzacher and Sangpradub 2021;Muthukatturaja and Balasubramanian 2021;Srinivasan et al 2021).…”

New findings of the Caenis ulmeriana-group (Ephemeroptera: Caenidae) in the Western Ghats, India

“…However, Indian Caenidae has ineffectively been investigated compared to other parts of the Oriental region with only two genera. So far, five species of Clypeocaenis Soldán, 1978 (Muthukatturaja et al, 2020;Srinivasan et al, 2022) and seven species of Caenis (Malzacher, 2015;Srinivasan et al, 2021Srinivasan et al, , 2023aSrinivasan et al, , 2023b have been discovered in the last decade. However, the number of undiscovered species in Caenidae is probably high compared to the discoveries that were made.…”

“…Until now, twelve species of Caenis were recorded in India: C. incurva Malzacher, 2015, C. picea Kimmins, 1947, C. piscina Kimmins, 1947, C. srinagari Traver, 1939from North India and C. kimminsis Ali, 1967, C. maratha Malzacher, 2015, C. americani Srinivasan, Sivaruban, Barathy, Malzacher & Isack, 2021, C. maduraiensis Balasubramanian & Muthukatturaja, 2021, C. kaegies Srinivasan, Sivaruban, Barathy & Isack, 2023 Journal of Insect Biodiversity and Systematics 2024  10 (in press) Srinivasan, Sivaruban, Barathy & Isack, 2023, C. arunachalami Srinivasan, Sivaruban, Barathy & Isack, 2023and C. limai Srinivasan, Sivaruban, Barathy & Isack, 2023 from South India. However, the validity of C. kimminsis is highly questionable by several authors (Staniczek et al, 2020;Srinivasan et al, 2021) and Srinivasan et al (2023a) proposed C. kimminsis as 'species inquirenda'.…”

New record of Caenis nigropuctatula Malzacher, 2015 (Ephemeroptera: Caenidae) from Southern India

“…kimminsis Ali, 1967 andC. americani Srinivasan, Sivaruban, Barathy, Malzacher &Isack, 2021. Of the seven species, three are known from Southern India (C. maratha, C. kimminsis, and C. americani); however, the current status of C. kimminsis is vague as Ali (1967) described this species as a superficial one which lacks informative drawings (Staniczek et al, 2020). We determine a new record of Caenis nigropunctatula Malzacher, 2015 based on comparing the samples that we have collected with the existing collections.…”