Description of a new species in the family Pisuliidae (Trichoptera, Insecta) in Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda by Leonce Ngirinshuti

Abstract: 
The new Pisuliidae species hereby described as Silvatares laetae Ngirinshuti & Johanson sp. nov.was identified from material sampled in Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda during field work conducted in October 2018. The collections were performed using light traps and Malaise traps. About 10 Pisuliidae specimens were identified in a sample size of 543 specimens distributed in 9 Trichoptera families. The specimens were determined using the method of DNA barcoding where a 658 base pair section of the mitochondrial gene cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) was amplified by PCR using the primers LCO1490: 5'-ggtcaacaaatcataaagatattgg-3' and HC02198: 5'-taaacttcagggtgaccaaaaaatca-3'. The species level identification for the sequenced specimens was performed by introducing the COI barcodes to the online platform―the Barcodes of Life Data system (BOLD) containing the reference library of barcodes of known species. Also a diagnosis of male genitalia was performed for description of the new species. A hypothesis on phylogenetic relationships among the analyzed specimens together with the existing Pisuliidae taxa was constructed using the software MrBayes 3.2.

 

Biography

Having conducted his thesis on the caddisflies (Trichoptera) of Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda, Leonce Ngirinshuti is a MSc candidate for a dual Master’s degree in Biodiversity Conservation and Natural Resources Management at the University of Rwanda and in Biogeosciences at the University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany. His research interest lies in the aquatic biodiversity and ecology as well as conservation of freshwater ecosystems. He works at an aquaculture research station at the University of Rwanda and he is a research fellow to the Center of Excellence in Biodiversity and Natural Resource Management (CoEB). He is also affiliated to the Swedish Museum of Natural History as an external participant in research project entitled “Description and analyses of the global diversity of caddisflies”. Leonce is currently involved in a research project on the limnology, macroinvertebrates and fishery of Lake Kivu, Rwanda.