Inventory of caddisflies (Trichoptera: Insecta) of the Campos do Jordão State Park, São Paulo State, Brazil

Abstract

Due to the incipient state of knowledge of the caddisflies of Brazil, faunistic inventories are extremely important. An inventory of the Trichoptera fauna of Campos do Jordão State Park (CJSP), São Paulo State, based on adults and larvae, is presented here, as well as comments on its taxonomic composition and the implications this poses for the value of conserving the Araucaria Forest. The samples were taken between August 2005 and February 2007. Larvae were collected with a Surber sampler in several kinds of mesohabitats, in 1st to 4th order streams throughout CJSP. Adults were sampled with light and Malaise traps, and also entomological nets. In all, 40 genera of Trichoptera belonging to 15 families were recorded. The CJSP fauna include 60% of the genera and 93% of the families reported from Brazil. Despite the high richness recorded, the cumulative curve for genera was still rising, indicating the possibility of a further increase with additional sampling effort. The high caddisflies richness, as well as the records of rare South American genera, may be related to peculiarities of the Serra da Mantiqueira, which seems to have maintained the habitat and climatic characteristics necessary to allow the survival of a Gondwanan relict of Araucaria moist forest, a hypothesis reinforced by the finding of relictual genera with a Gondwanan distribution, such as Neoatriplectides and Tolhuaca.