Introduction

The present study provides data on the ecological preferences and distribution of perlid stonefly Dinocras megacephala in Serbia in the 2012-2023 period. This species is often misidentified as the well-known perlid stonefly species, Dinocras cephalotes (Curtis, 1827). Males of D. cephalotes differ from D. megacephala by having patches of stronger sensilla basiconica on the ventral side of the abdomen (Hlebec et al, 2022).

Methods

Aquatic macroinvertebrate sampling was performed according to the AQEM protocol (AQEM, 2002). The semi-quantitative sampling was carried out using a hand net (25x25 cm, 500 μm mesh size), or the specimens were manually collected using tweezers. Samples were preserved using 70% ethanol solution and further processed in laboratories, where the specimens of D. megacephala were sorted from composite macroinvertebrate samples that were collected during Annual Water Quality Monitoring Programmes, conducted by the Serbian Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), as well as other field research carried out by the Faculty of Biology in Belgrade.

Results

During the 2012-2023 period, the perlid stonefly Dinocras megacephala was recorded in a total of 30 sampling sites in Serbia. The majority of sampling sites are situated in southwestern and southeastern Serbia.

Conclusions

Dinocras cephalotes was hitherto the most common Dinocras species in Serbia, but we assumed that D. megacephala is more frequent than previously thought, and it is most likely that the species was erraneously identified as D. cephalotes. The species prefers well-oxygenated medium streams in submountaineous and mountainous regions of Serbia, dominated by rock and gravel riverbed substrate types. Furthermore, brachypterous males of D. megacephala also occur at higher elevations (Illies, 1966), so brachyptery cannot be used as a characteristic to distinguish this species from D. cephalotes (usually at higher elevations). In addition, larvae of D. megacephala were used to estimate the effects of trout farms on the mass of the larvae and their antioxidative defense under pollution stress conditions (Mirčić et al, 2016).