Hydropsyche maroccana Navás 1932

(Figs 8, 9)

Material examined: Adult males were obtained from reared mature pupae: Chouly Wadi at Ouled Mimoun (CH 4): 1 (UTA), 12.iv.2014; Tafna Wadi (TFF): 5 (UTA), 25.v.2015 and 3 (UTA), 17.iii.2017; Khemis Wadi (KH1): 1 (UTA), 16.v.2015; and from the same wadi (TAF): 2 (UTA), 24.vii.2017.

Hydropsyche maroccana morphotype 1 larvae: Chouly Wadi (CH 4): 30 (UTA, UGS), 20.iv.2014, 45 (UTA), 13.viii.2014 and 15 (UTA), 12.iv.2015; Tafna Wadi (TGB): 58 (UTA), 17.iii.2017; Tafna Wadi (TFF): 87 (UTA), 1.viii.2014, 75, 08.viii.2015, 135 (UTA), 11.iii.2015, 14 (UTA), 17.iii.2016, 90 (UTA), 17.iv.2017; Isser Wadi (IOM): 33 (UTA), 12.iv.2015; Chouly Wadi (CH 4): 33 (UTA), 12.iv.2014, 75 (UTA), 16.v.2016; Khemis Wadi (KH1): 25 (UTA), 20.iv.2014; Djamaa Sakhra (DS1): 2 (UTA), 23.iii.2019 and 7 (UTA), 06.iv.2019; Djamaa Sakhra (DS2): 15 (UTA), 23.iii.2019 and 33 (UTA), 06.iv.2019; Coastal Wadi (TAF): 75 (UTA), 21.iv.2019 and 45 (UTA), 04.vii.2015.

Hydropsyche maroccana morphotype 2 larvae: Tafna Wadi (TFF): 156 (UTA), 17.iv.2014 and 58 (UTA, UGS), 17.iv.2017.

Description: Two larval morphotypes were collected. They differ in their colors and the aboral spot. H. maroccana 1 morphotype is similar to larva described by Dakki (1978) and Allaya (2003). The body length of the larva of the fifth instar of both morphotypes ranging from 22 to 25 mm. H. maroccana morphotype 1 has light brown body color with dark pronotum and head (Fig. 8A), unlike H. maroccana morphotype 2, whose yellowish-colored head tends to be very light in appearance (Fig. 9A). Both morphotypes having a convex anterior edge of the apotome (Figs 8B, 9B), a submentum with long and narrow lateral lobes (Figs 8C, 9C) and posterior prosternites pigmented (Figs 8D, 9D; Table 2). Morphotype 1 with light oral spot and blurred aboral spot, morphotype 2 with all light spots of frontoclypeal apotome completely joined, with dark T shape in centre and aboral spot V-shaped (Fig. 9B; Table 2). Pigmented zone covering posterior part of cephalic capsule with granular appearance for both morphotypes (Figs 8B, 9B).

Distribution and ecology: This West Palearctic species has been previously recorded in Algeria by Arab (1989) and Arab et al. (2004); in Tunisia by Boumaiza (1994), Allaya (2003), Kumanski (2007), and Bennas et al. (2018); in Morocco by Dakki (1978) as H. timha Mosely 1938, and by Dakki & Tachet (1987) and in the Canary Islands as H. flava Nybom 1948 (Báez & Oromí 2010; Morse 2020).

This species seems to thrive in a wide range of ecological conditions since it was collected in all the sampling sites at altitudes ranging from 3 to 1022 m a.s.l., although at a low abundance at high altitude. The abundance of this species increases considerably as the streams’ dimensions increase with decreasing altitude. This phenomenon was observed especially downstream of wastewater discharge; when the concentration of organic matter was very high, the species became very abundant, inhabiting various types of substrates as blocks, heterometric pebbles, and coarse and fine gravel. Some juvenile larvae were found attached to aquatic parts of riparian vegetation. Euryoecious and potamic preferences characterize this species.