Eight new provincial species records of mayflies (Ephemeroptera) from one Arctic watershed river in British Columbia

Ecosystem Science and Management Program, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, British Columbia, Canada
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, British Columbia, Canada
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.26461v1
Subject Areas
Biogeography, Ecology, Ecosystem Science, Entomology, Freshwater Biology
Keywords
British Columbia, Ephemeroptera, Baetis vernus, Acerpenna pygmaea, Leucrocuta hebe, Baetis phoebus, Siphlonurus alternatus, Iswaeon anoka, Tricorythodes mosegus, Procloeon pennulatum
Copyright
© 2018 Huber et al.
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Huber DPW, Shrimpton CM, Erasmus DJ. 2018. Eight new provincial species records of mayflies (Ephemeroptera) from one Arctic watershed river in British Columbia. PeerJ Preprints 6:e26461v1

Abstract

We repeatedly sampled eight sites on the Crooked River in British Columbia’s Arctic watershed for adult and nymph mayflies (Ephemeroptera) over the course of two years. Using taxonomic keys and DNA-barcoding we report eight new species records for the province. These are five Baetidae (Acerpenna pygmaea, Baetis phoebus, Baetis vernus, Iswaeon anoka, and Procloeon pennulatum), one Heptageniidae (Leucrocuta hebe), one Leptohyphidae (Tricorythodes mosegus), and one Siphlonuridae (Siphlonurus alternatus). Three of these – Acerpenna, Iswaeon, and Leucrocuta – are also new genus records for the province. In total we detected 40 species in eight families as indicated by clustering into BINs (Barcode Index Numbers), by morphological keys, and by matches in the Barcode of Life Database. One of those species, Ameletus vernalis, is of conservation concern. Our analysis indicated that a number of other specimens may represent new species or genus records for BC. In addition this unique and anthropogenically impacted river may contain cryptic species of Baetis tricaudatus (Baetidae), Leptophlebia nebulosa (Leptophlebiidae), and Paraleptophlebia debilis (Leptophlebiidae).

Author Comment

The Crooked River in the central interior of British Columbia is the furthest south system in BC's Arctic watershed. A variety of factors make this river unique, and our comprehensive surveys have uncovered eight new mayfly species records (and three new genus records) for BC. In this MS, submitted here as a preprint and simultaneously submitted elsewhere for peer review, we detail those new record and we present a checklist of all mayfly species identified in the Crooked River. Besides increasing the known mayfly fauna of BC, we also provide new biodiversity data for an historically undersurveyed portion of the province.