Abstract
Caddisflies are a highly diverse group of aquatic insects, particularly in the Neotropical region where there is a high number of endemic taxa. Based on taxonomic contributions published until August 2019, a total of 796 caddisfly species have been recorded from Brazil. Taxonomic data about Brazilian caddisflies are currently open access at the “Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil” website (CTFB), an on-line database with taxonomic information on the animal species occurring in Brazil. The order Trichoptera at CTFB includes a catalog of species recorded for the country, with synonymic lists, distribution throughout six biomes, 12 hydrographic regions, and 27 political states (including Federal District) from Brazil. The database is constantly updated to include newly published data. In this study, we reviewed the taxonomic effort on Brazilian caddisflies based on data currently in CTFB database. The accumulation curve of species described or recorded from the country, by year, shows a strong upward trend in last 25 years, indicating that it is possible that there are many more species to be described. Based on presence/absence of caddisfly species at three geographic levels (biomes, hydrographic regions, and states), second order Jackknife estimated at least 1,586 species occurring in Brazil (with hydrographic regions as unities), indicating we currently know about 50% of the Brazilian caddisfly fauna. Species distribution by Brazilian biomes reveals that the Atlantic Forest is the most diverse, with 490 species (298 endemic), followed by the Amazon Forest, with 255 species (101 endemic). Even though these numbers may be biased because there has been more intense collecting in these two biomes, the percentage of endemic caddisfly species in the Atlantic Forest is remarkable. Considering the distribution throughout hydrographic regions, clustering analyses (UPGMA) based on incidence data reveals two groups: northwestern basins and southeastern. Although these groups have weak bootstrap support and low similarity in species composition, this division of Brazilian caddisfly fauna could be related to Amazon-Atlantic Forest disjunction, with the South American dry diagonal acting as a potential barrier throughout evolutionary time.
Highlights
The caddisflies, order Trichoptera, represent a diverse lineage of aquatic insects, currently with more than 16,000 named species (Morse et al 2019)
We provided a constantly up to date taxonomic list for Brazilian caddisfly fauna, including for each species hierarchy classification, synonymic list, distribution for Brazilian biomes (Fig. 1), hydrographic regions (Fig. 2), and states (Fig. 3), and bibliographic references
Detailed information was obtained for each caddisfly species described or reported for Brazil: author, year of description, synonyms, complete literature, year of first record in Brazil, if endemic to Brazil, and the distribution in biomes, hydrographic regions, and Brazilian states
Summary
The caddisflies, order Trichoptera, represent a diverse lineage of aquatic insects, currently with more than 16,000 named species (Morse et al 2019). Larvae can be found in a large range of freshwater habitats, with a few species living in coastal marine waters (Riek 1976) and even in terrestrial habitat such as wet leaf litter (Anderson 1967, Nozaki 1999) Within these aquatic environments, they exploit a high diversity of microhabitat, displaying a wide variety of life-history strategies, which can be mostly attributed to the diverse way through which silk is used (Mackay and Wiggins 1979, Wiggins 1996, 2004). Either in larval or adult stage, caddisflies are important components in riparian environments, as food resources for vertebrates and invertebrates, and possibly as pollinators (Flint et al 1999)
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