Amphinemura palmeni Koponen 1916

Amphinemura palmeni Koponen 1916

The NHM contains no ethanol-preserved or slidemounted specimens labelled as such, nor do Lillehammer’s publications bear evidence that he studied specimens of A. palmeni. The online data portals do not contain any observations either. Very few findings of this species have ever been reported.

The absence of specimens and observations of this red-listed taxon is due to the uncertainty of its taxonomic status. Koponen (1917) described Amphinemura palmeni from the Kola Peninsula in northwest Russia. Brinck (1949:19) considered the name to be a synonym of A. standfussi (Ris 1902), ‚considering the description and the type material'. Then Tobias (1973) described A. norvegica from northern Norway. Meinander (1975) reports that Tobias and Baumann later checked the type of A. palmeni and found out that both A. norvegica and the Nearctic A. linda (Ricker 1952) were conspecific with A. palmeni. Illies’s catalogue (1966:185) reproduces Brinck’s opinion, while his chapter in Limnofauna Europaea (Illies 1978) later follows Meinander. Lillehammer’s (1988) identification key and handbook lists A. palmeni as a valid species and A. norvegica Tobias 1973 as its junior synonym.

I am currently re-examining the taxonomic status of this species. Preliminary analyses of mitochondrial sequences from P. cf. palmeni from Finnmark and Troms provinces in Norway and bordering Finland (northern Lapland province) show that two distinct clades of standfussi -like stoneflies occur in northern Scandinavia. Further research should establish whether these clades can be considered as easterly forms of A. standfussi, and whether the different clades interbreed.