Perla caucasica Guérin-Méneville, 1843

Murányi, Dávid, Manko, Peter, Kovács, Tibor, Vinçon, Gilles, Žiak, Matej, Kerimova, Ilhama G., Snegovaya, Nataly Yurievna & Oboňa, Jozef, 2021, Review and contribution to the stonefly (Insecta: Plecoptera) fauna of Azerbaijan, Zootaxa 4975 (1), pp. 58-80 : 74

Perla caucasica Guérin-Méneville, 1843

Şəki-Zaqatala region: 20: 1♂ larva (HNHM); 25: 1♀ larva (HNHM), 1♂ larva (LMEE); 26: 1♂ 2♀ larvae (HNHM), 1♂ 1♀ larvae (LMEE); 31: 1♂ larva (HNHM).

Remarks. This species is considered widespread in the Caucasian region, the whole of Anatolia, Cyprus and the Alborz of Iran ( Sivec & Stark 2002, Darilmaz et al. 2016). This is contrary to Teslenko & Zhiltzova (2009) and Cherchesova & Zhiltzova (2013) who considered it an endemic of the Greater Caucasus. This difference of opinion is based on the disputed synonymy of Perla abbreviata Klapálek, 1921 and P. persica Zwick, 1975 . These species were synonymized under P. caucasica due to their similar eggs ( Sivec & Stark 2002), however, their larvae are distinctly different. Similarly to the above species, our identification is based on larvae that agrees well with the recent description of the larva of P. caucasica from the Greater Caucasus ( Zhiltzova & Cherchesova 2003). Perla caucasica is a more potamal species than P. pallida . Azerbaijan specimens occurred in low and medium-high elevations, mostly in small rivers. These are the first exact locality data from Azerbaijan.