Twenty-four new species of Polycentropus (Trichoptera, Polycentropodidae) from Brazil

Abstract. Twenty-four new species of the caddisfly genus Polycentropus (Insecta: Trichoptera: Polycentropodidae) occurring in Brazil are diagnosed, described, and the male genitalia of each are illustrated. Eighteen of the new species are placed in the Polycentropus jorgenseni species complex of the Polycentropus gertschi group of New World Polycentropus sensu lato. Furthermore, 6 new species within the Polycentropus gertschi group (Polycentropus ancistrus sp. n., Polycentropus boraceia sp. n., Polycentropus carioca sp. n., Polycentropus froehlichi sp. n., Polycentropus galharada sp. n., and Polycentropus graciosa sp. n.) are placed in an informal diagnostic cluster of species with Polycentropus urubici Holzenthal and Almeida. Ten of the other Polycentropus gertschi group species form a second cluster of diagnostically similar species, the Polycentropus soniae cluster (Polycentropus caaete sp. n., Polycentropus carolae sp. n., Polycentropus cheliceratus sp. n., Polycentropus fluminensis sp. n., Polycentropus itatiaia sp. n., Polycentropus minero sp. n., Polycentropus santateresae sp. n., Polycentropus soniae sp. n., Polycentropus tripui sp. n., and Polycentropus virginiae sp. n.). Two of the remaining 8 new species are included in the Polycentropus jorgenseni species complex (Polycentropus cipoensis sp. n. and Polycentropus verruculus sp. n.), while the remaining 6 are unique and cannot be placed in one of the groups at this time (Polycentropus acinaciformis sp. n., Polycentropus amphirhamphus sp. n., Polycentropus cachoeira sp. n., Polycentropus inusitatus sp. n., Polycentropus paprockii sp. n. and Polycentropus rosalysae sp. n.).