The Trichoptera of Panama XX. Six new microcaddisflies (Trichoptera: Hydroptilidae) and two new country records

Abstract

Six new species of microcaddisflies (Trichoptera: Hydroptilidae) are herein described and illustrated: Cerasmatrichia armitagei sp. n., Metrichia hocica sp. n., Neotrichia majagua sp. n., N. solapa sp. n., Ochrotrichia latigiza sp. n., and O. ngabebuglea sp. n. These species were collected in western Panama from the Río Majagua watershed descending from Volcán Barú and Quebrada Martínez, a first-order stream in the Río Guabo watershed of the Bosque Protector Palo Seco. Metrichia quadrata (Flint, 1972) and Ochrotrichia filiforma Flint, 1972 are recorded for the first time from Panama. Two recently described species, Metrichia trebeki Harris and Armitage, 2019 and Ochrotrichia alma Thomson and Armitage, 2021 are reported for the second time from the country. The Republic of Panama now has 487 species of caddisflies distributed among 15 families and 56 genera.

http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:C98A88C2-2626-41E5-B294-0DBA6135AF67

Keywords:

• Trichoptera
• Hydroptilidae
• hydroptilids
• neotropics
• biological diversity
• Panama

Acknowledgements

We appreciate the efforts and cooperation of the Office of the Vicerrectoria de Investigación y Posgrado (VIP) of UNACHI in establishing our project credentials and approvals (Trichoptera Project Code: 1.87-205-000-2019-151-i01). We are grateful to the Ministerio de Ambiente (MiAmbiente) of Panama for all collection permits and import/export licenses employed. They also, through the Sustainable Production System and Biodiversity Conservation Project (PSPSCB), financed the collections in the Santa Fe National Park, based on funding from the World Bank. We are also grateful to COZEM of the Gorgas Memorial Institute of Health Studies, who led the aquatic macroinvertebrate field component of the PSPSCB project, as well as Edgar Álvarez, Carlos Nieto, and Edgar Pérez, who assisted with the field collections, and Aydeé Cornejo, who served as supervisor. We acknowledge the efforts of Brian J. Armitage in regard to project supervision and manuscript preparation. We are also appreciative of Tatiana I. Arefina-Armitage for editing the manuscript. They both are thanked for the loan of their personal car for fieldwork. We thank Kelly and Laurie Collier, owners of Finca Monterey, for their permission to sample Quebrada Jaramillo on their property. We are also grateful to Deborah Eisberg for her support of our research and are indebted to Albert Thurman for his collecting effort, logistical help, and friendship. Special thanks again to Tatiana Arefina-Armitage and to Leah Keth for their artistic skills in generating the illustrations for the new species. Aspects of this work were made possible thanks to support for Brian J. Armitage by the Sistema Nacional de Investigación (SNI) of Secretaría Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (SENACYT), Panama. Finally, we are indebted to Dr Helena Shaverdo, Chief Editor of Aquatic Insects, and three anonymous reviewers who collectively worked to improve the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Support for national park fieldwork came from Panama’s Ministerio de Ambiente (MiAmbiente), funded by a grant from the World Bank. Completion of this report was made possible thanks to support to Dr Brian J. Armitage by the Sistema Nacional de Investigación (SNI) of Secretaría Nacional De Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (SENACYT), Panamá.