Ephemeroptera: Leptophlebiidae of Gunnison County, ColoradoIntroduction to the Mayfly genus ChoroterpesEaton, 1881Updated 9 September 2024
TSN 101108 
Locations CollectedLarvae are present in Tomichi Creek east of Gunnison.LinksOn this website:Leptophlebiidae Introduction Choroterpes inornata may be present in the upper Gunnison Basin. Choroterpes albiannulata may also be present. Other Websites: ReferencesAllen,RK 1974 Neochoroterpes, a new subgenus of Choroterpes Eaton from North America (Ephemeroptera: Leptophlebiidae). Canadian Entomologist 106:161-168.Allen,R and Brusca,R 1973 The known geographic distribution of the Mexican mayfly genera in North America (Insecta: Ephemeroptera). In Proceedings of the First International Conference on Ephemeroptera, WL Peters and JG Peters (eds.). Brill Archive (pp. 49-63). PDF Brittain,JE and Saltveit,SJ 1989 A review of the effect of river regulation on mayflies (Ephemeroptera). Regulated Rivers: Research & Management, 3(1), pp.191-204. PDF Abstract: "Impoundment and diversion of watercourses for power production and water supply can have profound effects on the mayfly fauna. To explain such effects a species-specific approach is adopted on account of differing habitat requirements and life histories in the order and even within genera. Environmental conditions such as discharge and flow patterns, temperature, food availability, and predation may be changed. This leads to changes in the density and species composition of the mayfly community, especially when there is a hypolimnion drain from reservoirs. Temperature changes below such reservoirs may remove obligatory life cycle thresholds. Prolonged periods of low discharge lead to the dominance of genera, such as Paraleptophlebia, Choroterpes, Siphlonurus, and Pseudocloen, typical of slow-flowing and lentic habitats. The life cycle plasticity and opportunism shown by Baetis rhodani in Europe and B. tricaudatus in North America have undoubtedly contributed to their success in regulated rivers. The life history characteristics of Tricorythodes are also advantageous below dams. The increased growth of periphyton and mosses below many dams favour certain Ephemerellidae, but restrict or eliminate many Heptageniidae. In order to survive adverse conditions, flexible life cycles or a short period of rapid nymphal growth coupled with a long period of egg development, are advantageous." Eaton,AE 1881 An announcement of new genera of the Ephemeridae. Entomologist's Monthly Magazine 17:191-197. The Reverend Alfred Edwin Eaton describes the mayfly genus Choroterpes in this paper. Now the "foliaceous abdominal tracheal branchiæ" are called "gills" or now dorsal and ventral lamella.  Edmunds,GF and Musser,GG 1960 The mayfly fauna of the Green River in the Flaming Gorge Reservoir Basin, Wyoming and Utah.University of Utah Anthropological Papers. 48:111-123. Gerhardt A; Bisthoven LJ de; Soares AMVM. 2005. Effects of acid mine drainage and acidity on the activity of Choroterpes picteti (Ephemeroptera: Leptophlebiidae). Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 48:450-458. Kluge,NJ 2012 Contribution to the knowledge of Choroterpes (Ephemeroptera, Leptophlebiidae). Russian Entomological Journal, 21(3), pp.273-306. PDF McCafferty, WP 1992 New larval desciptions and comparisons of North American Choroterpes (Ephemeroptera: Leptophlebiidae) Great Lakes Entomologist (25)71-78. McCafferty,WP 1998 Ephemeroptera and the Great American Interchange. Journal of the North American Benthological Society 17(1)1-20 PDF Abstract: "The Panamerican Ephemeroptera fauna is evaluated with respect to the interchange of generic lineages and species between the Americas, and comparisons are drawn with classical studies of the American interchange based on other biota. Cladistic, distributional, and behavioral data are presented or reviewed that support the following hypotheses and conclusions: The Central American corridor has strongly favored northward dispersal, with 29 of 85 potential South American donor genera having infiltrated Central America, and 21 of those having further penetrated Nearctic North America. Only 10 of 63 potential North American donor genera have dispersed into Central America, and of those only Cercobrachys, Choroterpes, Epeorus, and Hexagenia have broached the Central American corridor. Only 8 species among the genera Campylocia, Cloeodes, Euthyplocia, Guajirolus, Hexagenia, Mayobaetis, and Tortopus co-occur in South and Central America. All belong to South American lineages, and 5 are large, relatively strong flying ephemeroid mayflies--the 3 belonging to Euthyplocia and Hexagenia having further penetrated North America. Species range extensions between North and Central American are less restricted, with 34 species of genera of South American origin and 9 species of genera of North American origin co-occurring in the continental Neotropics ("Central America") and Nearctic region ("North America") of the Northern Hemisphere. Late Neogene and Holocene dispersal can account for most infiltration of Central America as well as interchanges across the corridor. Bi-directional dispersal is evident in Caenis and Hexagenia. Vicariance has evidently affected the Panamerican distribution of Hexagenia and Homoeoneuria. Mid-Tertiary or earlier southward and more recent northward dispersal of Hexagenia is consistent with the distribution and phylogeny of the genus. A relatively early northward dispersal of Homoeoneuria is suggested by the presence of a distinct lineage in South America and the Holarctic sister relationship of Homoeoneuria and Oligoneurisca. Distributional pattern analysis predicts that the widespread Panamerican genus Callibaetis is of South American origin." McCafferty,WP; Durfee,RS; Kondratieff,BC 1993 Colorado mayflies (Ephemeroptera): an annotated inventory. Southwestern Naturalist 38 3, 252-274. PDF Quotes from page 262: Choroterpes albiannulata "In an unpublished Master's Thesis submitted to Colorado State University in 1977, E.L. Ames had earlier reported this species in abundance in the Yampa River (Moffat County and Routt County) and White River (Rio Blanco County). Edmunds and Musser (1960) reported this species from the Green River in nearby areas of both Utah and Wyoming. It is now generally known from throughout the Northwest, and McCafferty (1992) has recently described the larval stage, allowing the present confirmation."Choroterpes inornata" Colorado is evidently the northernmost location of this species, which was originally described from Mexico (Eaton, 1892). Allen (1974) showed C. inornata as occurring in southern Colorado on a range map, but provided no specific information. Larvae reported from La Plata County by Peters and Edmunds (1961) are probably attributable to this species." Peters WL, Edmunds Jr GF. 1961 The mayflies (Ephemeroptera) of the Navajo Reservoir Basin, New Mexico and Colorado. University of Utah Anthropological Papers, No. 55, Upper Colorado Series, No. 5, pp. Peters,WL 1988 Origins of the North American Ephemeroptera fauna, especially the Leptophlebiidae. Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada, (144) 13-24. Abstract: "The complex origins of the North American Ephemeroptera fauna extended from the Lower Permian to the Recent. This paper discusses origins of North American genera of the cosmopolitan family Leptophlebiidae with a few examples from other mayfly families. The two extant subfamilies, Leptophlebiinae and Atalophlebiinae, probably evolved at least by the mid-Cretaceous, or about 100 million years before present. The primitive Leptophlebiinae are distributed throughout most of the Northern Hemisphere and the ancestors of the Leptophlebia-Paraleptophlebia complex within this subfamily dispersed widely by the North Atlantic route as early as the mid-Cretaceous and later probably by northern trans-Pacific dispersals through Beringia. The ancestors of Habrophlebia dispersed through the North Atlantic route at an early time, but the vicariant distribution of Habrophlebiodes in several areas of the Oriental Region and eastern North America correlates with the Arcto-Tertiary forest that covered most of the Northern Hemisphere including Beringia from the Early Tertiary into the Pleistocene. Within the nearly cosmopolitan Atalophlebiinae, Traverella is austral in origin and probably dispersed north through the Mexican Transition Zone during the mid-Tertiary as an ancient dispersal and then dispersed to its northern and eastern limits following the last Pleistocene deglaciation by way of the Missouri River tributaries. Thraulodes and Farrodes are both austral in origin and probably dispersed north through the Mexican Transition Zone during the Early Pleistocene as a relatively recent dispersal. The origins of Choroterpes sensu stricto and Neochoroterpes in North America are unknown. The mayfly fauna of the West Indies is Neotropical in origins, and no affinities between the West Indies and North America through Florida have ever been confirmed." Illustrations
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