Kempnyia tenebrosa Klapálek 1916

Froehlich, Claudio Gilberto, 2011, Notes On Kempnyia, With The Description Of Three New Species (Plecoptera: Perlidae), Illiesia 7 (13), pp. 133-141 : 136

Kempnyia tenebrosa Klapálek 1916

(Figs. 5-6)

Kempnyia tenebrosa Klap á lek, 1916:50, 69.

Nedanta fusca Nav á s, 1932:86 ?

Kempnyia tenebrosa – Zwick, 1972:1172.

Kempnyia tenebrosa – Froehlich, 2010:182.

Material examined. BRAZIL. Santa Catarina, Blumenau, banks of Rio Garcia , 1♂, beating sheet , 5.XII.1975, S.A. Vanin. Santa Catarina, Boiteuxburgo, Nedanta fusca Nav á s, ♀ syntype ( ZMUH).

Remarks. This species, the type of the genus Kempnyia , has been seldom collected and is the subject to some confusion ( Zwick 1972). Zwick (1972, fig. 9, a, b) figured the penial armatures of two males, one from Corup á, SC, and the second from Rio de Janeiro, RJ. Differences between the two specimens Zwick attributed in part to the teneral condition of the second specimen. The penial armature of the above listed male (Figs. 5-6) agrees relatively well with the specimen from Corup á, but in the basal part of the longitudinal bars there is an outer angle, the base of the hooks is broader and basally to the gonopore tube there is a large protuberance (present, but smaller, in the specimen from Rio de Janeiro). As the species is known from only a few specimens, and the above specimen agrees with Klap á lek´s original description, I place it as K. tenebrosa .

Females of K. tenebrosa and K. neotropica can be distinguished by the shape of the subgenital plate. In K. neotropica the contour of the subgenital plate is elliptical with a small apical notch and covers most of sternum 9 and part of sternum 10, whereas in K. tenebrosa the plate is shorter and with a larger notch ( Zwick 1972, fig. 9c; Fig. 1 ).

Nav á s (1932) studying material in the ZMUH collected in Boiteuxburgo (a locality ca. 60 km south of Blumenau), Santa Catarina, erected the genus Nedanta with three included species, one of which was Nedanta fusca . This species was based on one male and one female, but Nav á s had doubts whether they belonged to the same species. Zwick (1972) synonymized the male syntype with K. neotropica . In 1968 I examined the female syntype. The subgenital plate (Fig. 7) is shorter than that of K. neotropica and has a deep apical notch, indicating this female could belong to K. tenebrosa , but not to K. neotropica , confirming Nav á s’s doubts. Kempnyia neotropica and K. tenebrosa are sympatric both in Rio de Janeiro and in Santa Catarina. Kempnyia neotropica , however is a common species, but K. tenebrosa is rare, known for a few specimens. Kempnyia tenebrosa may be a species that is not attracted to lights, the more usual way of collecting adult stoneflies in the Neotropics. The male from Santa Catarina was collected using a beating sheet.

Figures

Figs. 1-2. Kempnyia neotropica. 1. Female sterna 8 and 9. 2. Egg. Scale bar: Fig. 1, 1.00 mm; Fig. 2, 0.29 mm.