Twenty-four new species of polycentropus (Trichoptera, polycentropodidae) from Brazil

Abstract

Twenty-four new species of the caddisfly genus Polycentropus (Insecta: Trichoptera: Polycentropodidae) occurring in Brazil are diagnosed, described, and the male genitalia of each are illustrated. Eighteen of the new species are placed in the Polycentropus jorgenseni species complex of the Polycentropus gertschi group of New World Polycentropus sensu lato. Furthermore, 6 new species within the P. gertschi group (P. ancistrus sp. n., P. boraceia sp. n., P. carioca sp. n., P. froehlichi sp. n., P. galharada sp. n., and P. graciosa sp. n.) are placed in an informal diagnostic cluster of species wiThP. urubici Holzenthal & Almeida. Ten of the other P. gertschi group species form a second cluster of diagnostically similar species, the Polycentropus soniae cluster (P. caaete sp. n., P. carolae sp. n., P. cheliceratus sp. n., P. fluminensis sp. n., P. itatiaia sp. n., P. minero sp. n., P. santateresae sp. n., P. soniae sp. n., P. tripui sp. n., and P. virginiae sp. n.). Two of the remaining 8 new species are included in the P. jorgenseni species complex (P. cipoensis sp. n. and P. verruculus sp. n.), while the remaining 6 are unique and cannot be placed in one of the groups at this time (P. acinaciformis sp. n., P. amphirhamphus sp. n., P. cachoeira sp. n., P. inusitatus sp. n., P. paprockii sp. n. and P. rosalysae sp. n.). © S.W. Hamilton, R.W. Holzenthal.