Simulium (Nevermannia)

Crosskey, Roger W. & Crosskey, Margaret E., 2000, An investigation of the black ¯ y fauna of Andalusia, southern Spain (Diptera: Simuliidae), Journal of Natural History 34 (6), pp. 895-951 : 918

9. Simulium (Nevermannia) ru®corne Macquart

Spain references: Beaucournu-Saguez (1975a, S. ( Eusimulium ) ru®corne), GonzaÂlez PenÄa et al. (1987), GonzaÂlez PenÄa (1990), GonzaÂlez (1997).

Andalusia records

Authors’ material. Site 71: 14 pupae, 14 larvae.

Previous reports. JaeÂn: irrigation canal into RõÂo Guadiel, 4 km E of BaileÂn [VH31]; stream in maize and cotton ®elds, 5 km E of AnduÂjar [VH11] (ref. Beaucournu-Saguez, 1975b). MaÂlaga: Arroyo de la Venta, 4 km E of Teba (UF3394) (refs GonzaÂlez PenÄa et al., 1987; GonzaÂlez PenÄa, 1990).

Remarks

This morphospecies is enormously widespread, occurring throughout Africa, Arabia and the Middle East and having a toehold in the Iberian peninsula to about 38ssN. In southern Spain it is rarely found and is associated mainly with agricultural country in the middle Guadalquivir valley. We have found it at only one site, on the southeast coast of Spain near MojaÂcar where a small stream trickles through sugar-cane (®gure 54). The usual habitats are small sun-warmed streams, irrigation ditches and aqueducts. The morphospecies is polymorphic in its larval polytene chromosomes but in the absence of sympatry of the three cytoform s so far recognized (Bedo, 1989) there is no proof that these represent sibling species. Authors have long commented on the variation to be found in the pupal gill con®guration, even at a single site, but there is insu cient consistency to be found in this attribute or any other from any life stage to suggest that multiple species are involved. Nine examples of diversity of pupal gill shape in Arabian specimens have been illustrated by Crosskey and BuÈttiker (1982) and three are shown here for pupae from our Site 71 (®gures 16±18).