Taxonomia de Apobaetis Day, 1955 (Ephemeroptera: Baetidae) no Brasil

Abstract

The Pan-American genus Apobaetis Day, 1955 belonging to the Baetidae, is one of the least studied groups on the continent and with doubts about the identification of specimens from South America. In order to reduce this gap and resolve taxonomic doubts, the objective of this study is to carry out a taxonomic study on the species of the genus in Brazil, reviewing records, describing new species and, finally, developing an updated key to identify nymphs of the genus. From the study of the type material and the witness material of previous studies, three new species were described Apobaetis pasternakae sp. nov., Apobaetis jaquelinae sp. nov. and the correction of Apobaetis fiuzai Salles & Lugoortiz, 2002 and Apobaetis luanae sp. nov., from the correction of the record of Apobaetis kallawaya Nieto, 2006, the latter species being no longer recorded for Brazil. The analysis of the material present in the collections and laboratories (LACIA – INPA, LABICON – UNIR) resulted in the recognition of six new species Apobaetis dalcolmae sp. nov., Apobaetis danielae sp. nov., Apobaetis nisiae sp. nov., Apobaetis irai sp. nov., Apobaetis sabinae sp. nov. and Apobaetis trivellae sp. nov., increasing from seven to sixteen the number of species recognized in Brazil. The studies of the type material, of the witness material and of specimens never evaluated, allowed the proposition of three groups of species based on their morphology etowah Group, insolitus Group and lakota Group. Despite the proposition, four species could not be allocated into groups, due to their morphological diversity. The study of the morphological variation of widely distributed species, A. pasternakae sp. nov., A. fiuzai and Apobaetis hamadae Cruz, Boldrini & Salles, 2011, the result showed that the color pattern is very variable, which can induce identification errors if used, but the morphological characteristics currently used are stable, with little variation. At the end, identification keys for all known nymphs are proposed. Keywords: new species, psamophiles, variations, nymphs, taxonomy.