Biodiversity and distribution of Mayflies (Insecta: Ephemeroptera) in rivers of north and northeastern of Iran

The larvae of some insects are used as bio-indicator and an assessment of water quality. Therefore, species diversity and populations abundance of these insects in rivers areused as an effective method in assessing of water health. Order Ephemeroptera or mayfly is one of the most important indicators in assessing of water pollution such as EPT value (total benthos of the orders Ephemeroptera, Trichoptera and Plecoptera). Therefore, the faunistic study of the order is an important step in assessing the health of the freshwater ecosystems. In addition, using molecular data will help in determining the evolutionary history of the drainage basins and their evolutionary relationships.Iranian representatives of the Ephemeroptera are not well studied (i.e., Braasch. 1981,. Sartori & Sowa. 1992,.Soldan.,1978) and according to the last study by Bojkova et al., 2018 the number of 46 species were identified, of which 18 species presented as a new record from Iran. According to the importance of the above-mentioned cases, the present study examines the abundance and biodiversity of different families of this order in some current waters of the north and northeast of Iran. Specimens were collected from some rivers, then preserved in 70% ethanol. Specimens of Epeorus and Electrogena were identified only at the genus level, and for perfect identification, we need more examination. In addition, two species Baetis vernus and Electrogena gibeded were identified using value references such as (e.g., Eiseler 2005). Identification key to the mayfly larvae of the German Highlands and Lowlands, and Sroka, P., & Godunko, R. J. (2012).

Keywords:

Fauna , Taxonomy , Ephemeroptera