Lucimar G. Dias

Ephemeroptera (Insecta) de Caldas - Colombia, claves taxonómicas para los géneros y notas sobre su distribución

With the aim of contribute to the knowledge of taxonomy and distribution of the genera of the order Ephemeroptera in Caldas, samples were taken between May of 2008 and May of 2012 in 12 municipalities of the department of Caldas - Colombia, covering an altitudinal range from 159 to 3433 m and a total of 55 water sources. Six families and 26 genera of Ephemeroptera were found, of which Cabecar is a new record for Colombia, also recording for the first time the nymphs of Tikuna and Ulmeritoides for the country. Americabaetis, Apobaetis, Callibaetis, Cloeodes, Guajirolus, Paracloeodes, Cabecar, Traveryphes, Tricorythodes, Terpides, Tikuna, Ulmeritoides, Caenis and Campsurus are new records for Caldas. Differences in the composition of the fauna in the diverse altitudinal zones were found, being the areas below 1000 m with highest genera richness.

Species delimitation in the crypsis‐defended and polymorphic stick insects of the genus Libethra (Phasmatodea, Diapheromeridae)

Crypsis is a widespread defensive mechanism for prey ambushed by visually oriented predators. One well‐documented consequence of this interaction is the formation of search images by the predator that leads to the coexistence of multiple morphs in the prey population. Libethra is a genus of stick insects whose ornamentation and coloration are decidedly protective and exhibit exuberant intraspecific variation. Despite this fact, these traits have been extensively used to support the boundaries between the species it includes. This is the case in the north Andean species Libethra rabdota and Libethra rabdotula, delimited on the basis of a specific arrangement of ornamental characters. To state whether such taxonomical practice is meaningful and convenient, we evaluated the grouping of specimens of both species by means of the independent inference of phylogenies obtained with mitochondrial DNA sequences and ootaxonomy. This article synonymizes L. rabdota and L. rabdotula, redescribes the adults and describes the egg of the species. Additionally, we demonstrate that the characters related to crypsis used for the diagnosis of L. rabdota are not exclusive to this species by describing Libethra rioblanco sp. n. and Libethra ucumariensis sp. n. Our findings suggest that this genus requires extensive revision, but also provide support for the usage of different tools that might produce more accurate and stable classification. Evolutionary scenarios for both the extreme morphological variation and possible homoplastic state of camouflage‐related traits are discussed herein.

First record of Hydrosmilodon primanus (Eaton) (Ephemeroptera, Leptophlebiidae) from South America

In this paper the first record of Hydrosmilodon primanus (Eaton, 1892) from South America is presented. The record of the species is based on nymphs collected in San Sebastian de Mariquita city, Tolima department, Colombia.