Life history patterns of some species of Hydropsyche (Trichoptera: Hydropsychidae) in southern Ontario

Life history patterns are described for five species of Hydropsyche in the Credit and Humber rivers. Larvae of univoltine species matured in May or June. Bivoltine species had a fast-growing summer generation of larvae maturing in July or August and a slow-growing winter generation of larvae maturing in April or May. Hydropsyche betteni, H. dicantha, H. slossonae, and H. sparna were bivoltine at some sampling stations, univoltine at others. Hydropsyche scalaris was exclusively univoltine. Most species were represented by many instars concurrently during summer. Overwintering occurred in a smaller number of instars. Species that overwintered in the final or penultimate larval instar were more likely to mature early and to be bivoltine than species overwintering in younger instars. High summer water temperatures and (or) food quality increased growth rates and the probability that a summer generation could mature before fall. Smaller species were more likely to be multivoltine than larger species.Differences among the life cycles of the five species did not suggest effective ecological segregation in summer in terms of larval size. Different overwintering stages among the species may prove to be important factors controlling the number of generations per year.