Taxonomy and bionomy of Corydalus Latreille, 1802 (Megaloptera, Corydalidae) in the state of São Paulo

• Grant number: 18/07312-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2018
• End date: November 30, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Taxonomy of Recent Groups
• Principal Investigator: Lívia Maria Fusari
• Grantee: Homero Garcia Motta
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde (CCBS). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Megaloptera is an Order of insects holometabolo which currently encompasses two families - Corydalidae and Sialidae - 30 genera and 348 species distributed widely in the Neotropical and Neartic regions. Unlike other stages, the Megaloptera larva is aquatic and found in streams and clean ponds where voracious predatory larvae of insects, mollusks, crustaceans and annelids prevail. The imagos, in turn, emerge after a pupation period of approximately 14 days and exhibit, on average, half the pupa lifetime - the time it uses, primarily, in the search for a mate for mating. Despite the efforts of Contreras-Ramos in his literature review, his description of new species and the development of identification keys for specimens of this Order, little is known about the performance of the megaloptera community in ecosystem processes, nor the environmental conditions in which it develops. In addition, there is a large gap in the morphological and behavioral study of the immature and the descriptions of many species are outdated and incomplete. Therefore, a more in-depth analysis of the taxonomy and bionomics of the group, a task entrusted by the present project, which delimits the genus Corydalus Latreille, 1802, is the object of study. In this way, information will be added regarding the distribution and diversity of the group in question, paving the way for the promotion of future ecological works.