TAXONOMY OF THE LARVAE, PUPAE AND FEMALES OF THE VICTORIAN 
SPECIES OF CHIMARRA STEPHENS (TRICHOPTERA: PHILOPOTAMIDAE) 
WITH NOTES ON BIOLOGY AND DISTRIBUTION 
David I. Cartwright 
Biology Laboratory, MMBW Farm, Private Bag 10, PO, Werribee, Victoria 3030 
Cartwright, D. I., 1990:05:31. Taxonomy of the larvae, pupae and females of the 
Victorian species of Chimarra Stephens (Trichoptera: Philopotamidae) with notes on 
biology and distribution. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 102(1): 15-22. 
ISSN 0035-9211. 
The two species of Chimarra Stephens known from Victoria conform in most features 
with congeners described from overseas. Keys are provided for identification of adult males 
and females, pupae and larvae of the Victorian species, and information on the distribution 
of both species in Victoria as well as distribution records for the Yarra River system are 
presented. Details of the life history of Chimarra australica are included, as well as infor¬ 
mation on mesh size of the capture nets for both species. 
THE GENUS Chimarra Stephens is represented 
in all faunal regions of the world and contains a 
large number of species, most of which are 
tropical or warm-temperate in distribution 
(Wiggins 1977). Four species have been 
recorded from Australia; descriptions of the 
males of three of these and the female of the 
fourth were given by Mosely & Kimmins (1953). 
In reference to C. australis Navas, described 
from the female, Kimmins stated that he was 
“unable to recognize this species from the de¬ 
scription” (Mosely & Kimmins 1953: 404); the 
whereabouts of the holotype are unknown 
(Neboiss 1988). 
Chimarra is apparently diverse in northern 
Australia, with numerous undescribed species in 
collections, but C. australica (Ulmer) and C. 
monticola Kimmins are the only species known 
to occur in Victoria (Neboiss, pers. comm.). 
Males and females of both of these species have 
been bred out, and the larvae and pupae are de¬ 
scribed below. Larvae of overseas Chimarra 
have been described by various authors includ¬ 
ing Barnard (1934), Ross (1944), Marlier (1964), 
Hickin (1967), Lepneva (1970) and Wiggins 
(1977), although both Hickin and Lepneva 
based their descriptions on an earlier account by 
Marlier (1943). Barnard (1934), Ross (1944) and 
Lepneva (1970) also described pupae of 
Chimarra. Few female Chimarra have been de¬ 
scribed (Ross 1944, 1948, Kimmins 1957, 
Schmid 1982). Published information on imma¬ 
ture specimens of Australian Chimarra is re¬ 
stricted to a key to Victorian genera of Philo¬ 
potamidae (Cartwright & Dean 1982), general 
comments on the family by Riek (1970), a de¬ 
scription of the larva of an unidentified species 
of Chimarra from New South Wales (incorrectly 
associated and identified as Hydrobiosella letti 
Korboot) by Korboot (1964), an investigation of 
the life cycle of C. monticola (Dean & Cartwright 
1987), and an examination of the digestive tract 
contents of an unnamed species of Chimarra 
from Victoria (Chessman 1986). 
METHODS 
Information on the distribution of Chimarra 
species in Victoria has been derived from exten¬ 
sive collecting of larvae over many years, sup¬ 
plemented by locality records of adult speci¬ 
mens held in the collections of the Museum of 
Victoria, Melbourne. 
The life history of Chimarra australica was 
studied at a site on the Yarra River at Peninsula 
Road, approximately 80 km east of Melbourne 
and about 8 km downstream from the Upper 
Yarra Dam. The river at the study site is a fifth 
order stream but with reduced flow due to water 
abstraction upstream. Between August 1978 and 
February 1980, 12 samples were taken from a 
variety of habitats by a kick-sampling technique 
using a rectangular hand net (350 mm wide, 
mesh aperture size of 500 pm). Water temper¬ 
ature was measured at the time of sampling and 
ranged from 7.4°C (August) to 16.7°C (March). 
Stream discharge was measured at a site 1.5 km 
downstream of the sampling site. Total flow for 
the period January' to September inclusive was 
26,000 ML in 1978 and 8,000 ML in 1979 
(MMBW Hydrographic Section records). 
15 
