Description of the larva of Oecetis mizrain Malicky & Graf, 2012 (Trichoptera, Leptoceridae) and Lepidostoma scotti (Ulmer, 1930) (Trichoptera, Lepidostomatidae) from Chilimo Forest, Central Ethiopia

Abstract

The Ethiopian caddisfly fauna comprises 85 species, including 10 Oecetis species and three Lepidostoma species. In this context we provide the first species-level descriptions of Ethiopian caddisfly larvae. We describe and illustrate the larvae of O. mizrain and L. scotti, with additional notes on their habitats and distribution.

Longitudinal river zonation in the tropics: examples of fish and caddisflies from the endorheic Awash River, Ethiopia

“…The Awash River's source region, located in the Chilimo Forest ([ 2,389 m), is characterized by caddisflies as fish species (G. aethiopica, G. dembeensis) were only present up to a small cascade restricting further upstream distribution (Englmaier, 2018). Three of the present caddisfly species (L. scotti, C. themaz, O. armaros), which so far are only known from Ethiopia (Malicky & Graf, 2015;Terefe et al, 2018), exclusively occur at S1 in Chilimo Forest. The headwater community consists of shredders (Lepidostoma) and predators (Leptoceridae: Oecetis).…”

“…We collected only 28 species (7 families) within the entire Awash drainage, although nearly 1,250 km of the main river and seven tributaries were surveyed. Kimmins (1963), Malicky & Graf (2012 and Terefe et al (2018) reported 14 additional species, increasing the number to 42 species in the Awash drainage. However, this number is still low if compared to other tropical rivers such as the Mae Klang Catchment (Northern Thailand) with 171 species (Malicky & Chantaramongkol, 1993;Chaibu, 2000;Chaibu et al, 2002;Malicky, 2014).…”

“…limited accessibility of the entire habitat mosaic of a given site) and due to the low knowledge level on larval taxonomy of African caddisflies in general (e.g. Scott, 1975;Terefe et al, 2018;Ochieng et al, 2019). Only 105 larval stages of 747 Sub-Saharan species of African caddisflies were known by the early 1980s (Scott, 1983).…”

“…Since then, only twelve additional studies have produced descriptions of larvae for individual species (e.g. Malicky, 1994;Allaya, 2003;Ogbogu, 2008;Ogbogu & Okeze, 2008;Terefe et al, 2018).…”

“…Only 92 species (9 families) of caddisflies are known so far from Ethiopia (Tobias & Tobias, 2008;Terefe et al, 2018;Morse, 2020). Given the higher diversity in South Africa (253 species; de Moor & Day, 2013) and Madagascar (500 species; Benstead et al, 2003), the Ethiopian fauna appears to be either poorly investigated (Terefe et al, 2018) or greatly impoverished. We collected only 28 species (7 families) within the entire Awash drainage, although nearly 1,250 km of the main river and seven tributaries were surveyed.…”