Catoxyethira Ulmer 1912

Wells, Alice & De Moor, Ferdinand C., 2020, Hydroptilidae (Trichoptera) of Angola, a new genus, seven new species, and five new records, Zootaxa 4868 (4), pp. 495-514 : 497

Genus Catoxyethira Ulmer 1912

Surprisingly, although more species of Catoxyethira have been described than for any other hydroptilid genus in West Africa ( Gibon 1985, 1987a, 1987b, 1991), only one species was collected, represented by a single male. It is somewhat surprising more broadly that the female of only one Catoxyethira species has ever been described (see Statzner 1977).

The genus is a member of the subfamily Stactobiinae , among which some species have diurnally active adults that seldom are attracted to light. However, this is unlikely to be an explanation for the paucity of specimens in this collection, since the many species described by Gibon from Cameroon, Guinea, and Ivory Coast were collected at lights. Stactobiinae larvae tend to be madicolous, living on rocks where they feed upon the microfilm on the surfaces, so the unsuitable nature of the stream bed in the sand-bed rivers is probably the explanation for its absence in these rivers. Typical stactobiine habitat is illustrated in Figure 49 .

Features that distinguish Catoxyethira from the other genera in the Angolan hydroptilid fauna are the combination of presence of ocelli, the transverse median suture on the mesoscutellum, the rectangular and short and broad shape of the metascutellum; the spur count of 1,3,4; and paired spines on male abdominal segment VIII.

Figures

FIGURES 48, 49. Collection sites representative of those surveyed: 48, Lungue Bungo River flowing through Kalahari sand substrate with marginal, trailing aquatic and some woody vegetation [Photo F.C. de Moor]; 49, rapids on Cubango River. [Photo I.S. Ferreira].