Larvae of North American species of Pteronarcys (Plecoptera: Pteronarcyidae).

摘要

Larvae of the eight North American Pteronarcys (Plecoptera: Pteronarcyidae) species have been difficult or impossible to identify over the past century. This stems from the lack of rigorous comparisons of reared material. The absence of a reliable key diminishes the importance of Pteronarcys larvae in aquatic ecological and biomonitoring studies. We provide comparative larval descriptions and a key illustrated with high resolution photographs of important diagnostic characters for the eight North American species of Pteronarcys. Earlier descriptions are reviewed and supplemented with new photographs, illustrations and morphometric data to aid in the separation of morphologically similar species.