Premium
The wing morphology of limnephilid caddisflies in relation to their habitat preferences
Author(s) -
MüllerPeddinghaus Elisabeth,
Hering Daniel
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
freshwater biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.297
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1365-2427
pISSN - 0046-5070
DOI - 10.1111/fwb.12114
Subject(s) - wing , biology , metapopulation , sexual dimorphism , biological dispersal , wing loading , morphology (biology) , ecology , habitat , genus , zoology , population , aerodynamics , demography , sociology , engineering , aerospace engineering , angle of attack
SummaryThe aerial dispersal of merolimnic insects is a prerequisite for maintaining metapopulations and for colonising new habitats. Flight morphology, as one determinant of dispersal capacity, may be related to the distribution patterns and ecological preferences of aquatic insects, but empirical data for T richoptera are scarce. This study aimed to provide flight morphological data for common E uropean T richoptera species in relation to their ecological preferences. We measured the flight morphology of 26 C entral E uropean species of L imnephilidae ( T richoptera) including wing length, wing width, wing area, relative wing length and the aspect ratio of the fore and hind wings (combined). There were strong relationships between forewing length and body length ( r ² = 0.884), wing width ( r ² = 0.960) and wing area ( r ² = 0.93) in the untransformed data. Species of the same genus may differ strongly in wing length, wing width and wing area; however, when the wing area is considered on the size‐independent scale of relative wing length, species of the same genus are more similar. Sexual dimorphism was species specific. Male wing dimensions exceeded those of females in all species that displayed significant differences between the sexes except in P arachiona picicornis . For aerodynamic indices such as aspect ratio, only 28 % of the studied species show sexual dimorphism; in L imnephilus fuscicornis and P otamophylax luctuosus , males exceed females, and in D rusus annulatus , D rusus discolor and P otamophylax cingulatus , females exceeded males. On the basis of our data, we conclude that females may be the primary dispersers in four of the 18 species for which sufficient data were available, whereas in two species males appear to be stronger dispersers. We found three different morphological blueprints in forewing length and wing width: G roup 1 encompassed crenal‐inhabiting species with a distinct habitat preference for mineral habitats (low aspect ratio, small wings; e.g. D . discolor ); group 2 comprised rhithral species without a distinct habitat preference (high aspect ratio, large wings; e.g. P . cingulatus ); and group 3 encompassed species inhabiting lentic waters and preferring organic habitats (high aspect ratio, medium‐sized wings; e.g. A nabolia nervosa ).