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An Afrotropical Chironominae with a 'novel' character

Started by Martin Spies, April 19, 2014, 02:49:24 PM

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Martin Spies

In the ZSM collection in Munich I have found a slide with an adult female from the DR of Congo that I am unable to key to genus at this time.

Please see the attached micro-photograph, and let me know if you have encountered anything like it. Note especially the groups of modified setae in the middle of abdominal sternites VI and VII.

Additional morphological features of this female could be supplied upon request - here or via e-mail.

Martin Spies
spies@snsb.de

Martin Spies

#1
I have identified the genus as Dicrotendipes. Judging from the wing and leg coloration patterns, the species seems to be new to science. (I am unaware of any nomen dubium or named but unplaced species described from Africa as a Dicrotendipes or Limnochironomus, e.g. by Kieffer or Goetghebuer.)

The special sternite setae shown in my original post are not 'novel' after all.
Freeman (1957, "... Chironomidae ... of Africa ..., Part III, e.g. page 366) mentioned them as "black spines" seen in several Afrotropical Dicrotendipes.
Epler (1988, "... Dicrotendipes ... of the world"; Mem. Am. Ent. Soc. 36, e.g. p. 10) called them "ventral accessory setae" and reported them to be present on "sternite VI (and sometimes V or VII)" in both adult sexes of certain species.
Cranston et al. in Wiederholm (1989; Ent. scand Suppl. 34: 375), in the diagnosis for adult males of Holarctic Dicrotendipes, wrote of "sternite VI with or without median group of 1 to many darker, flattened, blunt tipped setae ... ."

johnepler


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