Trichoptera of Venezuela

Research Team

Ralph Holzenthal
Claudia Cressa
Roger Blahnik
Henrique Paprocki
Aysha Prather

This project grew out of an invitation in 1994 from Dr. Claudia Cressa, Universidad Central de Venezuela, to Ralph Holzenthal to visit Venezuela and collect caddisflies in conjunction with Claudia's research on stream ecology. We made additional collections in 1995 and 1997 and are now beginning to describe the caddisfly fauna of the country. Only 170 species of caddisflies have been reported from Venezuela. The most comprehensive treatment of the fauna was published by Dr. Oliver S. Flint, Jr., Smithsonian Institution (Flint 1981) on the caddisflies of the Río Limón basin, Estado Aragua. In that paper, Flint recorded 56 species from the basin and described 32 of them as new to science. Other records and species descriptions of Venezuelan caddisflies are scattered in about 40 additional publications, many based on material collected and described by Flint (cited in Flint et al., 1999). The recorded Trichoptera fauna of Venezuela is certainly an underestimate of the actual fauna, which could reach well over 500 species.The objective of this project is to continue the formal documentation of the Trichoptera of Venezuela based on the material obtained during the various efforts discussed above. One paper reviewing the genus Atopsyche (Hydrobiosidae) in Venezuela, including the description of three new species, has been submitted for publication. It is planned that this first paper will be followed by others treating additional families and genera.