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 : 919

10. Simulium (Nevermannia) sp. near pinhaoi Santos GraÂcio

Spain references: no previous reference.

Andalusia records Authors’ material. Site 119: 1 pupa (23.iii.1996) .

Remarks

Our material includes a pupa that we cannot identify, which could represent an undescribed species, and which was found in a small rocky stream ¯owing into the west side of the upper Guadalquivir river near its source in the Sierra de Cazorla, JaeÂn Province (WG0493). We assign this pupa to the ru®corne -group of the subgenus Nevermannia . As with other species of the group, such as S. angustitarse and S. pinhaoi Santos GraÂcio , the cocoon has a thin loose texture and a short poorly formed median hood and the pupal gill has four ®laments spreading at the base. The characteristic feature of the gill is the almost sessile condition of the ®laments (®gure 21), a diOEerence from other species of the group, and the strong convergence and intertwining of the ®lament tips (®gure 22). The ®laments are also very slender, quite diOEerent from the stout and divergent ®laments of S. ru®corne (®gures 16±18). The lack of de®nite common stems to the upper and lower pairs of ®laments distinguishes the pupa from that of S. pinhaoi and from that of Andalusian specimens of S. angustitarse (®gures 19, 20). The closest resemblance is to the pupa of S. pinhaoi (®gure 23), with which it has been compared using material of that species from its original (and only known) locality, San Pedro de Moel in Leiria District of Portugal (Santos GraÂcio, 1985). The cocoons are alike, even to the presence of some bundled strandwork longitudinally down the back, and the gill pro®le with its convergent ®lament tips is very similar. There is also a general resemblance in the gill to that of the subgenus Eusimulium (®gure 15). A diagnostic character of the adults of S. pinhaoi is the presence of two patches of scale-hairs on the postnotum, but as the pharate adult is undeveloped in the Spanish pupa this character cannot be determined. (The presence of postnotal scale-hairs in S. pinhaoi is curious since this character is diagnostic for species of the subgenus Eusimulium and seems not otherwise to occur in species of the subgenus Nevermannia .)