The diversity of Trichoptera larvae in the Juzna Morava river basin

Abstract

During the past two decades, Trichoptera larvae have been studied in Serbia, within the framework of research on the macrozoobenthos of aquatic ecosystems. In that period (from 1980 to 200 I) 25 more species of Trichoptera, new for the fauna of Serbia, were recorded (at the larval stage). Six of them, (Rhyacophila pascoei Mac Lachlan; Chimarra marginata Linne; Cyrnus flavidus Mac Lachlan; Stenophylax sequax Mac Lachlan; Stenophylax vibex Curtis; Stenophylax lateralis Stephens), were recorded in the Juzna Morava river basin during the period from 1998 to 2000 (Z i vic et al. 2002). So, the total number of recorded trichoptera species in Serbia makes now 176. After these investigations total number of registered species of Trichoptera in Serbia is 176. The fact that neighbouring countries are characterised by a greater diversity of this insect order (about 230 species have been registered in Bulgaria (K urn a n ski 1985, 1988), 267 species in Romania (C i u b u c , 1993); 211 species in Hungary (S c h mer a 2001), 239 species in Poland (T 0 mas z e w ski 1965), 381 speciesin Italy (C ian fie con i 2002) and 300 species in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Ra d o v a n o v i c 1953; MarinkovicGospodnetic 1970,1978,1979) was a challenge for further investigations of Trichoptera in Serbia. In order to determine the diversity of Trichoptera larvae, we continued the investigations in the Juzna Morava river basin during the period from 2001 to 2002 in 223 localities. In material collected from 42 rivers, 85 species of Trichoptera larvae from 16 families were found (Table 1). The greatest number of recorded species of Trichoptera belong to the families Limnephilidae (32), Hydropsychidae (9) and Rhyacophilidae and Glossomatidae (8), the families Brachycentridae, Lepidostomatidae, Odontoceridae, Phryganeidae, Sericostoma tidae and Ueonidae were represented by a single species each.