Megaperlodes tiunovi Teslenko 2015

Murányi, Dávid & Hwang, Jeong Mi, 2015, Just Like Birdwatching: The First Record Of Megaperlodes Tiunovi Teslenko 2015 (Plecoptera: Perlodidae) From Korea, Illiesia 11 (10), pp. 126-129 : 127-128

Megaperlodes tiunovi Teslenko 2015

( Fig. 1 )

Megaperlodes tiunovi Teslenko 2015:554 . (original description of male, female and larva).

Type locality: Russia, Primorye , Brus’ya River at Bamburovo

New record (photograph): SOUTH KOREA: Gangwon Province, Inje-gun, Girin-myeon, Bangdong-ri , (Mt.) Bangtaesan , N37°56’33.73” E128°22’55.76”, 06.v.2010, T. W. Kim .

On the very same day when the description of M. tiunovi was published, the first author encountered a color photograph of a similar stonefly in the recent monograph of Korean Orthoptera ( Kim 2013). The image is included in a table to present orders related to Orthoptera, but even though it is small, the characteristic wing and head pattern of the species are obvious. Dr. Tae Woo Kim kindly provided us an original, larger image and informed us about the habitat and other circumstances where the photo was taken. Unfortunately, the specimen was not captured, but it was clearly identical with the type series. Dr Valentina A. Teslenko also confirmed its conspecificity.

Although it is not the usual practice to publish stonefly records without voucher specimens, vertebrate biologists occasionally do, [e.g. birds, where even a new species was described without fixing type specimens Robb et al. (2013); however, disputed and put in synonymy by Kirwan et al. (2015)]. We take this exception because of the distinctive habitus of M. tiunovi , and the detailed agreement based on high quality photographs of the Korean specimen ( Fig. 1 ) with that of the type specimens ( Figs. 1–2 , 4 in Teslenko 2015). We also note that color photography has increasing importance in the study of stoneflies, and photographic guides are already available ( Stark et al. 1998, Szczytko & Kondratieff 2015).

The Korean specimen of M. tiunovi was found near a narrow stream resting on stones during daytime and showed weak flight ability. According to the latest stonefly reports from South Korea ( Murányi & Park 2011, Zwick & Baumann 2011), this is the 62th species reported from the country. To explain this range extension we provide a map on the known distribution of the two Megaperlodes species ( Fig. 2 ).

Figures

Fig. 1. Habitus of Megaperlodes tiunovi Teslenko 2015 from South Korea (photograph by T.W. Kim).

Fig. 2. Distribution of the genus Megaperlodes Yokoyama, Isobe & Yamamoto 1990; gray areas are above 2000 meters; open circles = M. tiunovi; closed circles = M. niger.