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The stoneflies and caddisflies of North Africa are still poorly known as vast areas of Algeria have yet to be investigated. A survey of the macroinvertebrates of the Seybouse River, northeast Algeria, was carried out from July 2014 to December 2016. Three species of stoneflies (Capnopsis schilleri, Capnioneura petitpierreae, and Tyrrhenoleuctra tangerina) and five taxa of caddisflies (Mesophylax aspersus, Hydropsyche maroccana, H. resmineda, H. artax/lobata, and H. gr. pellucidula) were identified. All taxa are new records to the Seybouse River and seven of them are new to northeastern Algeria. A multivariate analysis indicated that the Hydropsychidae exhibited a clear longitudinal gradient along the Seybouse River while Mesophylax aspersus seemed adapted to species-poor, intermittent streams. Further investigations of the stoneflies and caddisflies may inform conservation efforts and will prove useful to monitor the Seybouse River and similarly threatened North African rivers and streams.

We have recognised significant incongruences among the most commonly used taxonomic characters in the European species of Wormaldia genus of the Philopotamidae caddisfly family. During taxonomical analysis and ranking procedures we have recorded incongruent, discorcordant characters also in the taxa in Rhyacophilidae, Hydropsychidae and Limnephilidae caddisfly families. Based on theoretical background we concluded that taxa of examined caddisflies and probably all living creatures are chimeric entities composed of components of different origin. Genomes and phenomes are tree-like on the surface but more reticulated in the deep. We understand chimerism with universal consequences, expanding well beyond the evolutionary tree-thinking of reductionism and determinism. Taxa are chimeric or at least chimerical in a stochastic universe under the permanent fluxes of the external and internal impacts created by intercourses between entropy and energy gradients. We have surveyed how to create and correct synonymies in the splitter/lumper perspectives along the principles of compositional and specification hierarchies understood as quantitative variability of non-adaptive neutral and qualitative stability of adaptive, non-neutral traits. We outlined how the apophantic (declaratory) hybris creates synonymies and underestimates biodiversity. After redrawing the diverging genitalic structures, particularly the speciation traits we have reinstated species status of eight taxa: W. trifida Andersen, 1983 stat.restit, stat. nov., W. albanica Oláh, 2010 stat. restit., W. bulgarica Novak, 1971 stat. nov., W. daga Oláh, 2014 stat. restit., W. graeca Oláh, 2014 stat. restit., W. busa Oláh, 2014 stat. restit., W. homora Oláh, 2014 stat. restit. W. nielseni Moretti, 1981 stat. nov. Character selection and lineage sorting procedures established the following species groups, species complexes and species clades in the European species of Wormaldia: W. occipitalis species group: W. occipitalis species complex; W. charalambi species group; W. copiosa species group; W. triangulifera species group: W. bulgarica species complex, W. khourmai species complex, W. subnigra species complex: W. asterusia species clade, W. subnigra species clade, W. vercorsica species clade; W. triangulifera species complex, W. variegate species complex. Unplaced species: W. ambigua, W. algirica, W. sarda. In this revision we have described fourteen new species: W. longiseta, W. carpathica, W. kurta, W. parba, W. foslana, W. kumanskii, W. libohova, W. silva, W. gorba, W. kera, W. rona, W. sima, W. granada, W. telva

The distribution of Trichoptera of the Hozgarganta River (Los Alcornocales Natural Park, SW Spain) in relation with environmental factors was examined. Three groups of species were recognised according to the altitudinal gradient. In the headwaters the caddisflies Rhyacophila fonticola, Lepidostoma hirtum, Silonella aurata, Allogamus gibraltaricus, Hydropsyche infernalis and Diplectrona felix predominated; in the constrained section of the tributaries Polycentropus kingi, Chimarra marginata, Hydropsyche iberomaroccana, R. fonticola and Tinodes sp. prevailed; finally, in the main channel H. iberomaroccana, C. marginata, Hydropsyche lobata, Leptocerus lusitanicus and Rhyacophila munda were the most important species. A direct ordination analysis (CCA) was used to describe assemblage changes among sites and corroborated that conductivity and temperature were the variables that best explained Trichoptera distribution. The temporal analysis showed changes in the Trichoptera diversity and richness in permanent stretches, as well as variations in the structure of the communities according to the season. We identified autumn‐winter species (H. infernalis, H. siltalai, H. lobata, R. fonticola and R. munda ) and summer ones (Ithytrichia sp, Oxyethira unidentata, Mystacides azurea and Setodes argentipunctellus ). In the basin we distinguished permanent, intermittent and ephemeral reaches with similar caddisfly richness and diversity, however the species composition associated with each one was different. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)