Anacaena limbata

“ Anacaena limbata (Fabricius, 1792) ”

Queens Co.: Millvale, 25. VI.2003, C.G. Majka, old mill pond, (2, CGMC); Millvale, 15.VIII.2004, C.G. Majka, old mill pond, (7, CGMC); St. Patricks, 18.VIII.2002, C.G. Majka, in wet moss beside small stream, (3, CGMC); St. Patricks, 14.VII.2002, C.G. Majka, in wet moss beside small stream, (3, CGMC); Vernon River, MacMillan’s Pond, 3. VI.1970, R. Wenn, pond, (1, UPEI).

Newly recorded on Prince Edward Island, this species favours shallow standing water or margins of slow-flowing creeks with vegetation. It is also frequently found in semi-aquatic habitats (Smetana 1988).

The zoogeographic status of this species is unclear. Smetana (1988) regarded it as an apparently Palaearctic species introduced to North America. He also drew attention to the fact that it appeared that two species, A. lutescens (Stephens 1829) and A. limbata , were being confused under the name of A. limbata in North America. Albrecht Komarek (pers. comm.), who is revising the genus worldwide, points out that while A. limbata and A. lutescens are readily separable in Europe, North American specimens cannot unambiguously be assigned to either species. He believes that North American specimens may represent a separate, undescribed “cryptic” species in the lutescens complex. Morphological examinations cannot resolve the problem and it may require molecular phylogenetic analysis in order to discern the nature of this “species.” Thus, in the present treatment, I provisionally treat it as a Nearctic species in the lutescens complex whose status has yet to be fully discerned.