Chironomus

Male buzzer midge Chironomus plumosus, copyright Didier Descouens.

Belongs within: Chironomidae.

Chironomus is a cosmopolitan genus of midges. It is distinguished from related genera by features of the male genitalia, with appendage 1 often curving or hooking or with a ventral apical knob and with a digitiform process arising distad from the microtrichiose base, and appendage 2 well developed with long setae distally. Abdominal tergites often bear dark spot and transverse bands, and the r-m area of the wing is often darkened. Larvae inhabit soft sediments and other underwater organic deposits. Depending on the species, they may require pristine to acidic or brackish water habitats (Spies et al. 2009).

Characters (from Oliver 1981): Male antenna with eleven flagellomeres. Antepronotal lobes not separated medially. Wing with crossvein r-m definitely oblique to R₄₊₅; crossvein m-cu absent. Apex of fore tibia with inner low rounded scale that projects slightly beyond similar outer scale; hind tibia with two combs composed of basally fused spines. Male terminalia with gonocoxite and gonostylus separate; appendage 1 with basal long setae, or rarely with long setae only on apical two-thirds, without enlarged setiferous base; appendage 2 subcylindrical, longer than appendage 1, with many apical setae.

<==Chironomus Meigen 1803 [incl. Tendipes Meigen 1800 (nom. rej.)] O81
    |--C. (Chironomus) SA09
    |    |--C. (C.) elegans G20
    |    `--C. (C.) staegeri SA09
    `--C. (Lobochironomus) montuosus SA09

Chironomus incertae sedis:
  C. acutiventris R86
    |--C. a. acutiventris R86
    `--C. a. bavaricus R86
  C. alternans CM91
  C. atroviridis O81
  C. australis CM91
  C. clavaticornis RD77
  C. frigidus T04
  C. intertinctus W70
  C. limnaei A71
  C. pedellus D56
  C. plumosus SA09 [=Tendipes plumosus CS77]
  C. prasinus BBM91
  ‘Tendipes’ reductus CS77
  C. riparius SA09
  C. silvestris [incl. C. silvestris var. ornatus] K01
  C. singulatus OV95
  C. stercorarius RD77
  C. tentans MG06
  C. tepperi WT11
  C. thummi B91
  C. venerabilis Etheridge & Olliff 1890 F71
  C. zealandicus B87

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[A71] Askew, R. R. 1971. Parasitic Insects. Heinemann Educational Books: London.

[B91] Baker, R. A. 1991. Development and life-history strategies in mussel mites (Hydrachnellae: Unionicolidae). In: Schuster, R., & P. W. Murphy (eds) The Acari: Reproduction, development and life-history strategies pp. 65–73. Chapman & Hall: London.

[BBM91] Baker, R. A., S. Brett & N. Morley. 1991. Water mite larvae parasitic on insects—a study of larval structures and host relationships. In: Dusbábek, F., & V. Bukva (eds) Modern Acarology: Proceedings of the VIII International Congress of Acarology, held in České Budĕjovice, Czechoslovakia, 6–11 August 1990 vol. 1 pp. 493–496. SPB Academic Publishing: The Hague.

[B87] Boothroyd, I. K. G. 1987. Taxonomic composition and life cycles of Chironomidae (Diptera) in a northern New Zealand stream. Entomologica Scandinavica Supplement 29: 15–22.

[CM91] Colless, D. H., & D. K. McAlpine. 1991. Diptera (flies). In: CSIRO. The Insects of Australia: A textbook for students and research workers 2^nd ed. vol. 2 pp. 717–786. Melbourne University Press: Carlton (Victoria).

[CS77] Cramp, S., & K. E. L. Simmons (eds) 1977. Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa: The Birds of the Western Palaearctic vol. 1. Ostrich to Ducks. Oxford University Press: Oxford.

[D56] Dawes, B. 1956. The Trematoda with special reference to British and other European forms. University Press: Cambridge.

[F71] Fletcher, H. O. 1971. Catalogue of type specimens of fossils in the Australian Museum, Sydney. Australian Museum Memoir 13: 1–167.

[G20] Goldfuss, G. A. 1820. Handbuch der Naturgeschichte vol. 3. Handbuch der Zoologie pt 1. Johann Leonhard Schrag: Nürnberg.

[K01] Kertész, K. 1901. Legyek [Dipteren]. In: Horváth, G. (ed.) Zichy Jenő Gróf Harmadik Ázsiai Utazása [Dritte Asiatische Forschungsreise des Grafen Eugen Zichy] vol. 2. Zichy Jenő Gróf Harmadik Ázsiai Utazásának Állattani Eredményei [Zoologische Ergebnisse der Dritten Asiatischen Forschungsreise des Grafen Eugen Zichy] pp. 179–201. Victor Hornyánszky: Budapest, and Karl W. Hierseman: Leipzig.

[MG06] Mallatt, J., & G. Giribet. 2006. Further use of nearly complete 28S and 18S rRNA genes to classify Ecdysozoa: 37 more arthropods and a kinorhynch. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 40: 772–794.

[O81] Oliver, D. R. 1981. Chironomidae. In: McAlpine, J. F., B. V. Peterson, G. E. Shewell, H. J. Teskey, J. R. Vockeroth & D. S. Wood (eds) Manual of Nearctic Diptera vol. 1 pp. 423–458. Research Branch, Agriculture Canada.

[OV95] Ovčarenko, N. A., & I. Vima. 1995. [Issia singulati sp. n. (Microsporidia, Telomyxidae): a new species of Microsporidia from Chironomus singulatus Meigen larvae from Kiev’s water reservoir]. Gidrobiologicheskii Zhurnal 31 (5): 78–83.

[R86] Reiss, F. 1986. Erster Nachtrag zur Chironomidenfauna Bayerns (Diptera, Chironomidae). Spixiana 9 (2): 175–178.

[RD77] Richards, O. W., & R. G. Davies. 1977. Imms' General Textbook of Entomology 10^th ed. vol. 2. Classification and Biology. Chapman and Hall: London.

[SA09] Spies, M., T. Andersen, J. H. Epler & C. N. Watson Jr. 2009. Chironomidae (non-biting midges). In: Brown, B. V., A. Borkent, J. M. Cumming, D. M. Wood, N. E. Woodley & M. A. Zumbado (eds) Manual of Central American Diptera vol. 1 pp. 437–480. NRC Research Press: Ottawa.

[T04] Trägårdh, I. 1904. Fauna Arctica: Eine Zusammenstellung der arktischen Tierformen, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des Spitzbergen-Gebietes auf Grund der Ergebnisse der Deutschen Expedition in das Nördliche Eismeer im Jahre 1898 vol. 4 pt 1. Monographie der arktischen Acariden. Gustav Fischer: Jena.

[W70] White, M. J. D. 1970. Cytogenetics. In: CSIRO. The Insects of Australia: A textbook for students and research workers pp. 72–82. Melbourne University Press.

[WT11] Wiegmann, B. M., M. D. Trautwein, I. S. Winkler, N. B. Barr, J.-W. Kim, C. Lambkin, M. A. Bertone, B. K. Cassel, K. M. Bayless, A. M. Heimberg, B. M. Wheeler, K. J. Peterson, T. Pape, B. J. Sinclair, J. H. Skevington, V. Blagoderov, J. Caravas, S. N. Kutty, U. Schmidt-Ott, G. E. Kampmeier, F. C. Thompson, D. A. Grimaldi, A. T. Beckenbach, G. W. Courtney, M. Friedrich, R. Meier & D. K. Yeates. 2011. Episodic radiations in the fly tree of life. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 108 (14): 5690–5695.

Last updated: 28 December 2021.