Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Oops! Make That Genus "Remenus"


I have to correct my mistakes when I find them.  This little Perlodid stonefly that I found in the Moormans on the 12/30/11 was not a Diploperla Perlodid -- as I so boldly proclaimed without doing any microscope study -- it was a Remenus Perlodid.  Another first for the season.

Remenus is a Perlodid genus that I found in only two places last year: first at Buck Mt. Creek on 5/31, and then the very next day, 6/1, in a tributary to the Moormans.  So, here's what they look like when they grow up.

5/31, Buck Mt. Creek:


6/1, tributary to the Moormans:


If you go back to the entry I posted on 5/31, you'll see that the key feature that distinguishes the genus Remenus from other Perlodid genera is the lacinia:  it has only one tooth -- no other spines or hairs.  And here's what I saw in microscope today when I took a close look at this nymph.


(I thought at first I had broken a second tooth off -- but no: the other lacinia was exactly the same.)
Perlodid stonefly, genus Remenus.  And, the only species that is known for sure in North Carolina is Remenus bilobatus, TV = 0.9 (NCDWQ).

Sloppy work on my part.  Sure looked like Diploperla, but clearly, we can't base ID on our "hunches".  That also means, that I do not know the genus of the other Perlodid I found -- the one that had just recently molted and was almost transparent.



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