Hot Hydroscapha: Finding potential hydroscaphid habitat in hot springs in Idaho

The family Hydroscaphidae is a relatively small and uncommonly collected group of tiny aquatic beetles in the suborder Myxophaga. Fourteen currently described species are placed in three genera: Hydroscapha from both the Old and New World, and the Neotropical genera Yara and Scaphydra (Vanin et al. 2005, Hall and Short 2010). Only a single species of Hydroscapha, Hydroscapha natans LeConte, has been recorded in the United States, and the the recent discovery of a new species of Hydroscapha in Jerry Johnson Hot Springs in northern Idaho prompted the examination of material from other hot springs in Idaho. Investigation of mounted material in museums revealed that populations of Hydroscapha in three other hot springs posessed substantial morphologial differences from both the Jerry Johnson Hot Springs population and H. natans. These three populations were from separate hot springs, and these are the only hot springs in Idaho from which Hydroscapha has been collected. We hypothesize that every suitable hot spring in Idaho may bear its own unique Hydroscapha species and that more extensive collection of hot springs in Idaho and the surrounding states would yield these potential species. Using publicly available water temperature and locality data and Google Earth, as well as some unconventional sources of hot springs information, we mapped out potential habitat for Hydroscapha in Idaho.