Eucapnopsis brevicauda Claassen, 1924

Judson, Sarah W. & Nelson, C. Riley, 2012, 3541, Zootaxa 3541, pp. 1-118 : 19

Eucapnopsis brevicauda Claassen, 1924

SYNONYMY

Capnia brevicauda Claassen, 1924

Eucapnopsis brevicauda Neave, 1934

TYPE LOCALITY: USA: Boulder , Colorado .

DIAGNOSIS: Adults have characteristically short cerci ( Fig. 43), typically with 5–6 segments but always fewer than 11 segments. The male epiproct is short and stout ( Fig. 44), especially in comparison to other Mongolian capniids and C. nigra ( Fig. 39) in particular. The male 9th sternum has a vesicle that is roughly the same color as sternum 10 and often only noticeable by its outline ( Fig. 45), whereas the vesicles in Isocapnia are more strikingly contrasting and pronounced ( Fig. 52). The female subgenital plate does not protrude beyond sternum 8 and is composed of two sclerites that originate near the lateral margins of sternum 8 and gradually taper toward the membranous middle of the segment ( Fig. 46). Like the adult, the nymph also has short cerci, often with fewer than 15 segments ( Fig. 28). Nymphal lacinia have many (30+) evenlength teeth ( Fig. 27).

DISTRIBUTION—Global: Amphi-Pacific— Regional: AOB*, IDB*— Aimag: KhD*, SE*.

DISCUSSION: Eucapnopsis brevicauda is a widely distributed species in both the Nearctic and Palearctic (Zhiltzova 2001) but was not observed in Mongolia over the course of our study. However, the species was recently documented in a tributary to the Selenge River (Surenkhorloo 2009), the records of which are also mentioned by Teslenko and Bazova (2009).

There is some question of the identification of this species, as it might be confused with E. stigmatica . The most recent treatments of the genus as a whole (Zhiltzova 2003, Teslenko & Zhiltzova 2009) characterize the distribution of E. brevicauda as extending as far west as the Russian Altai Mountains. Thus Mongolia is within that distributional range. Teslenko and Zhiltzova (2009) list E. stigmatica as occurring much further south in the Pamir, Tien Shan, and Karakoram ranges, some distance from Mongolia. Thus, based on general distributions, it is most likely that the species in Mongolia is E. brevicauda , rather than E. stigmatica . We have not seen any of the Mongolian specimens records to confirm this identification. As such, our photos of this species are based on Nearctic specimens readily available to us.