Immature stages of the limnephilid caddisfly Verger lutzi (Navás 1918) (Trichoptera: Limnephilidae): description and larval life-history traits in seasonal forested wetlands of Northwestern Patagonia.

The genus Verger Navás 1918 (Trichoptera: Limnephilidae), is a Neotropical genus exclusive to the Andean region, with most of its species distributed from Tierra del Fuego to north central Chile and Argentina. Currently, 20 species of the genus have been described from adults and only six larvae have been associated and diagnosed. The ecology of the species is completely unknown. In this work, we describe and illustrate the immature stages of Verger lutzi (Navás 1918) and study its breeding phenology, larval growth and adult emergence. The main characters that enable the separation of this species are the coloration the body, shape of the anterior ventral apotome, shape and distribution of metanotal setal areas, distribution of tracheal gills and number of accessory teeth in the anal prolegs. Reproduction occurs during the summer and females lay their eggs on the wetland basin formed by humid leaf litter and organic debris, covered by herbaceous vegetation. Larvae hatch after flooding and overwinter in the wetland. Larvae develop fast during spring and emergence begins in December before the wetland dries up. Description of the immature stages is helpful for use of macroinvertebrates biomonitoring, ecological studies and understanding their ecosystem services in seasonal-lentic habitats.

Warming-induced shifts in amphibian phenology and behavior lead to altered predator-prey dynamics.

Climate change-induced phenological variation in amphibians can disrupt time-sensitive processes such as breeding, hatching, and metamorphosis, and can consequently alter size-dependent interactions such as predation. Temperature can further alter size-dependent, predator-prey relationships through changes in species' behavior. We thus hypothesized that phenological shifts due to climate warming would alter the predator-prey dynamic in a larval amphibian community through changes in body size and behavior of both the predator and prey. We utilized an amphibian predator-prey system common to the montane wetlands of the U.S. Pacific Northwest: the long-toed salamander (Ambystoma macrodactylum) and its anuran prey, the Pacific chorus frog (Pseudacris regilla). We conducted predation trials to test if changes in predator phenology and environmental temperature influence predation success. We simulated predator phenological shifts using different size classes of the long-toed salamander representing an earlier onset of breeding while using spring temperatures corresponding to early and mid-season larval rearing conditions. Our results indicated that the predator-prey dynamic was highly dependent upon predator phenology and temperature, and both acted synergistically. Increased size asymmetry resulted in higher tadpole predation rates and tadpole tail damage. Both predators and prey altered activity and locomotor performance in warmer treatments. Consequently, behavioral modifications resulted in decreased survival rates of tadpoles in the presence of large salamander larvae. If predators shift to breed disproportionately earlier than prey due to climate warming, this has the potential to negatively impact tadpole populations in high-elevation amphibian assemblages through changes in predation rates mediated by behavior.