Psectrocladius Kieffer, 1906

Chamutiová, Tímea, Hamerlík, Ladislav & Bitušík, Peter, 2020, Subfossil chironomids (Diptera, Chironomidae) of lakes in the Tatra Mountains an illustrated guide, Zootaxa 4819 (2), pp. 216-264 : 242

Psectrocladius Kieffer ( Figs 60–62 )

Head capsule yellow to light brown, occipital margin pale or darkened. Antenna 5-segmented, premandible with one tooth. Apical mandibular tooth shorter than or 2.5x longer than combined width of 3 inner teeth. Mentum with one or two median teeth and 5 pairs of subequal lateral teeth. When single median tooth, then either with one or two nipple-like median projections. Ventromental plates broad, extending beyond outermost mental teeth and forming a noticeable triangle at the apex. Beard consisting of variable number of setae present, but not always visible in subfossils.

Remarks: Psectrocladius is a relatively uniform genus, and subfossil head capsules provide a combination of characteristics that are distinctive: large acutely pointed ventromental plates with beard (beard is often missing in subfossil material), simple premandible, five lateral mental teeth.

Recently, 5 species: Psectrocladius (Allopsectrocladius) obvius (Walker, 1856) , P. (A.) platypus (Edwards, 1929) , P. (Mesopsectrocladius) barbatipes Kieffer, 1923 , P. (Psectrocladius) octomaculatus Wűlker, 1956 , P. (P.) oxyura Langton, 1985 were identified based on pupal exuviae material collected from the Tatra Mts. lakes ( Bitušík 2004; Novikmec et al. 2015).

Psectrocladius remains belong to the most common orthoclads in the Tatra Mts. lakes, mostly found in lakes situated at lower altitude.

Three types were distinguished following Brooks et al. (2007).

Figures

FIGURES 60–65. Psectrocladius (Mesopsectrocladius) barbatipes-type: 60—head capsule. Psectrocladius (Psectrocladius) psilopterus-type: 61—head capsule, A—detail of mandible. Psectrocladius (Psectrocladius) sordidellus-type: 62—head capsule. Pseudosmittia: 63—head capsule. Smittia/Parasmittia: 64—head capsule. Smittia/Parasmittia: 65—mentum, A—Smittia antenna (a—basal segment, b—flagellum, c—blade).