Morphological and electrophoretic evidence for a new species of Electrogena from central Italy: Description of E. lunaris sp. n. (Ephemeroptera: Heptageniidae)

Abstract

A population of Electrogena from central Apennine (Italy), previously attributed to E. later‐alis (Curtis) proved to be a new species after electrophoretic analysis. Imagines of the new species, named E. lunaris sp. n. differ from E. lateralis only by body and wing colouration. Larvae can be identified by numerical methods. Electrophoresis indicated three loci (Aldh, Gdh, Mpi) that are diagnostic between the syntopic populations of E. lunaris and E. lateralis and the allele frequencies of three other loci (Est‐2, Mdh‐1, Pgm) were statistically different between the two species.

Keywords:

• Ephemeroptera
• Heptageniidae
• taxonomy
• electrophoresis
• new species
• Italy