The Trichoptera of Panama IX. Preliminary comparison of caddisfly assemblages for two proximate watersheds in western Panama

Abstract

The Río Caldera occupies the northernmost subbasin of the Río Chiriqui watershed area. Two of its tributaries, Quebrada Grande and Quebrada Jaramillo, occur in close proximity and on opposite sides, and have different recent geologic histories and current land use patterns. The species richness of adult caddisflies in these drainages is very similar. However, their assemblage composition is quite different. When compared to optimal and minimal lists of genera, mimicking collections of larval stages, the similarity between these two tributaries increases significantly. This study suggests that adult caddisfly identifications at the species level provide higher overall information content, produce better estimates of species diversity, are potentially useful in determining relative similarity of streams and drainages based on assemblage composition, and generate questions which would not be possible employing larval, generic-level identifications. However, multiple samples over time and space employing multiple sample methods are required to provide robust estimates of species diversity.

Keywords:

• Trichoptera
• assemblages
• drainages
• watersheds
• Panama

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Dr Ed DeWalt of the Illinois Natural History Survey, and several anonymous reviewers for improving the quality of our manuscript. We are also grateful to Aydeé Cornejo and the field staff of CoZEM. We extend thanks to CoZEM of the Gorgas Institute for including the first author on their collecting permit, and to Panama’s Ministerio Ambiente for issuing same. We express our appreciation to Kelly and Laurie Collier for permitting us to collect Quebrada Jaramillo on their property and facilitating our efforts there. Thanks to Tatiana Arefina-Armitage for assistance with collecting and the editing of this manuscript. Finally, we thank Lloyd Cripe, Steve Sarner, and Sela Burkholder, all of Boquete, Panama, for providing meteorological data for this publication.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.