Hidden diversity of the long-horned caddisfly genus Triplectides Kolenati, 1859 (Trichoptera: Leptoceridae) in Brazil revealed by DNA and morphology: new species descriptions and larval associations

Triplectides Kolenati, 1859 (Leptoceridae) is the most diverse genus within Triplectidinae, with about 90 species worldwide, 18 of them in the Neotropics. Currently, eleven species are recorded from Brazil. Since Holzenthal’s 1988 revision, many additional specimens have become available, leading to a significantly broader known distribution for several Brazilian species of Triplectides.

Consequently, the morphological boundaries between some species have become less distinct. Furthermore, despite the ecological importance of caddisfly larvae, the immature stages of only a few Brazilian species have been described to date. The present study has the following aims: to evaluate Triplectides species boundaries using morphology and DNA sequences (COI and EF- 1 α); describe probable new species; and use DNA-based life stages associations to recognize and describe larvae at the species level.

We delimited and formally described seven new species of Triplectides: T. bandeira sp. nov., T. caparaoensis sp. nov., T. cerradoensis sp. nov., T. iguassu sp. nov., T. mantiqueira sp. nov., T. paragracilis sp. nov., and T. puri sp. nov. Additionally, we successfully associated adult males with the immature larval stages of seven Brazilian species, including both newly described and previously known species of Triplectides, for which we provide morphological descriptions.