Polypedilum (s. s.) sp., Kieffer, 1912

Namayandeh, Armin, Guerra, Sergio, Islam, Natasha, James, Taylor, Hudson, Patrick L., Ghaderi, Edris, Yusuf, Thameena, Vasquez, Adrian A. & Ram, Jeffrey L., 2024, New species and a fascinating diversity of Chironomidae (Diptera, Insecta) in and around an overlooked urban vernal pool, ZooKeys 1208, pp. 133-163 : 133-163

Polypedilum (s. s.) sp.

Remarks.

The adult males of the Polypedilum (s. s.) specimens that we collected from Pond A resemble Polypedilum (s. s.) trigonus, Townes, 1945 . However, these adults did not key out to any known Nearctic adult male in the subgenus Polypedilum based on Maschwitz and Cook (2000). The adult male of this species is distinguished by the following characteristics: head, thorax, and abdomen uniformly dark brown, legs stramineous; AR 1.8; wing unmarked; anal point extending to or slightly higher than inferior volsella; superior volsella without tubercle, sickle-shaped, robust at the base narrowing and bent at apex; inferior volsella tubular and narrow. Based on the molecular data obtained, the species does not match any known Polypedilum species in GenBank or BOLD, only to sequences identified only as Polypedilum sp. , accession numbers HQ 982463 and HQ 981830 . The adult males obtained in this study possibly represent a new species. However, we need to examine more materials, including those of the related species, before we can make the decision on the status of this species. The hypopygium of the adult male is shown in Fig. 6 P .

Figures

Figure 6. Gallery of Chironomidae species collected from Pond A, 2022–23 A. Labrundinia pilosella (Loew, 1866) B Allocladius nanseni (Kieffer, 1926) C, D Cricotopus (Isocladius) intersectus (Staeger, 1839) E Diplosmittia harrisoni Sæther, 1981 F Smittia aterima (Meigen, 1818) G, H Smittia terrestris Goetghebuer, 1941 I Chironomus (s. s.) acidophilus Keyl, 1960 J Chironomus (s. s.) bifurcatus Wülker et al., 2009 K Chironomus sp. ‘ butleri ’ of Martin (2023) L Chironomus (s. s.) maturus Johannsen, 1908 M Chironomus (s. s.) atrella (Townes, 1945) N Chironomus (Lobochironomus) dorsalis Meigen, 1818 O Kiefferulus dux (Johannsen, 1905) P Polypedilum (s. s.) sp. Q Tanytarsus guerlus (Roback, 1957) R Tribelos jucundum (Walker, 1858)., B, E, F, I – R male hypopygium C female sternites and genitalia D, G female antenna H female wing. Scale bars: 50 μm.