A key to the larvae of the genera of Chironomidae of Neotropical and Antarctic regions

SILVA, FABIO LAURINDO DA; PINHO, LUIZ CARLOS; WIEDENBRUG, SOFIA; GALILEU, P.S. DANTAS; SIRI, AUGUSTO; ANDERSEN, TROND; TRIVINHO-STRIXINO, SUSANA

Trento

Simposio; International Symposium on Chironomidae; 2017

Recent years have seen an increasing interest regarding the family Chironomidae(Insecta, Diptera) in the Neotropical and Antarctic regions. Several monographs onindividual genera have been published, including species-level keys, as well as extensivereference collections. However, despite these remarkable efforts, the larvalchironomid fauna remains poorly known ecologically and taxonomically in the Neotropicsand Antarctics. There has been no attempt to construct a comprehensivekey to Chironomidae from the aforementioned regions. There are a few local keysfocusing on the Argentinean fauna, and for Central America and southeast Brazil. Inthe Neotropics, the incomplete knowledge of the full life history, associated with thelack of descriptions and keys to a local fauna often prevent species identifications.Additionally, it is customary to overlook the Chironomidae in favor of groups, such asEphemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera, which are more limited in number anddiversity, and more easily identified. For this assessment, we recognize nine families,with known larvae, occurring in the Neotropical Region. In total, 144 genera wereincluded in the key.The subfamily Chironominae is prevalent with 55 genera (38.2 %) followed by theOrthocladiinae and Tanypodinae with 50 (34.7 %) and 23 (16.0 %) genera, respectively.The balance of 16 (11.1 %) genera represent the six remaining subfamilies(Aphroteniinae, Buchonomyiinae, Diamesinae, Podonominae, Prodiamesinae andTelmatogetoninae). The Antarctic fauna is represented by only three species of Chironomidae: the orthoclads Belgica antarctica Jacobs and Eretmoptera murphyi Schaeffer and the podonomine Parochlus steinenii (Gerke).Regarding the Neotropics, the endemicity of chironomids is difficult to evaluate at present. Although, many genera and species have been found only in the region, their full geographical range is not known. The present work provides updated information on the larval chironomid fauna in the Neotropical and Antarctic regions and will hopefully encourage further studies in the area.