Paramerina okimaculata Sasa

Niitsuma, Hiromi, Suzuki, Risa & Kato, Hideaki, 2011, Review of the Japanese species of Paramerina (Diptera: Chironomidae: Tanypodinae), with a key to the known males, Zootaxa 2821, pp. 1-18 : 16

Paramerina okimaculata Sasa

( Figure 43)

Paramerina okimaculata Sasa, 1990: 142 ; Kobayashi & Endo 2008: 52 .

Material examined. Holotype of Paramerina okimaculata : male ( NSMT), labeled, “No. 174: 96”, JAPAN: Okinawa, Okinawa Island, Genga River, 27.xi.1988 (adult emerged 22.ii.1989). Paratypes of Paramerina okimaculata : 2 females ( NSMT), labeled respectively, “No. 174: 97” and “No. 174: 98”, same data as holotype.

Remarks. Paramerina okimaculata was described by Sasa (1990) on the basis of the holotype male and two paratype females collected from Okinawa Island, Japan. In the original description, he noted that the presence of a pair of brown patches on each of abdominal tergites II–IV, the brownish wing with three pale spots in the apical half, the brownish yellow legs, and the hind tibia without comb-like setae are characteristic to the male, and that the female abdomen is yellow except largely brown tergites II–IV. Re-examinations of the holotype and the paratypes, however, have revealed that the male and female adults have brown wings with two transverse pale bands on the apex and the apical one-third ( Fig. 43), legs darkened partially by brown setae, and an indistinct comb consisting of five, sparsely arranged, spines on the hind tibia, and that the abdomen has anterior dark bands on tergites II–IV in the male, and largely brown tergites II–VI in the female. Therefore the species is valid as a member of Paramerina .

The male is very similar to that of the Oriental species P. ignobilis (Johannsen) in the wing with two distal pale bands and the legs bicolored indistinctly, but separable from the latter by the abdominal tergites II–IV each with an anterior dark band, and the cross-vein MCu located at one-fourth distance from the arculus to the wing tip. The male of P. ignobilis has entirely yellow abdominal tergites II–IV, and MCu located three-sevenths from the arculus, according to Johannsen (1931). Also the North American species P. fragilis (Walley) somewhat resembles P. o k imaculata in the wing banded by brown setae, but differs from it in the pattern darkened apically (see Roback 1971, fig. 518).

Paramerina okimaculata has a poorly developed tibial comb on the hind leg, which is unique considering that other known species of Paramerina possess a well-developed tibial comb on the hind leg ( Fittkau 1962; Roback 1971; Harrison 1978; Murray & Fittkau 1989).