Lasiodiamesa gracilis (Kieffer 1924)

Syrovátka, Vít & Langton, Peter H, 2015, First records of Lasiodiamesa gracilis (Kieffer, 1924), Parochlus kiefferi (Garrett, 1925) and several other Chironomidae from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, CHIRONOMUS Journal of Chironomidae Research 28 (28), pp. 45-56 : 45-46

Lasiodiamesa gracilis (Kieffer 1924)

During the first-author’s (VS) visits to his grandmother living in Škrdlovice he regularly collected pupal exuviae from a peat pool within a mineral poor Sphagnum fen, Radostínské rašeliniště National Nature Reserve ( Fig. 1 ). This small reserve is located in the Žďárské Vrchy Protected Landscape Area within the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands. VS found a single pupal exuviae of Lasiodiamesa on 14 May 2011 and identified it as L. gracilis . Despite the fact that the identification was confirmed by P. Langton at the Chironomid Symposium in Trondheim a few months later, VS felt uncertainty about it because of subtle characters that discriminate this species from L. sphagnicola (Kieffer 1925) .

During one of his next visits, 15 March 2015 VS succeeded to collect tens of larvae of Lasiodiamesa from the same locality and reared two male and several female adults. Adult males bear much better characters than pupae and the two males could be easily identified as L. gracilis using the key by Brundin (1966) .

The habitat where the species was found corresponds well with the known restriction of the genus to Sphagnum bogs in the Middle Europe, where it is considered a glacial relict, as stated by Brundin (1966). Radostínské rašeliniště Sphagnum bog is the only place in the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands where pools are developed, while the closest Sphagnum bogs with pools may be found as far away as in Sudetenland. Indeed, the closest known locality is the type locality just across the Czech/ Poland border in Poland some 90 km to the north from the Radostínské rašeliniště ( Brundin 1966, Saether and Spies 2015). Other populations may be expected in Sudetenland, however VS has been unsuccessful there so far. This might be caused by the rarity of the species as stated by Verberk et al. (2003), but also by unsuitable time of the author’s sampling – in late spring and summer the species might be already emerged and can not be found in water anymore. Other known localities in Europe are in The Netherlands ( Verberk et al. 2003) and in Scandinavia ( Brundin 1966, Saether and Spies 2015).

The chironomid assemblage at Radostínské rašeliniště was dominated by Monopelopia tenuicalcar (Kieffer 1918) and Corynoneura spp. in early spring, in late spring also by Psectrocladius bisetus Goetghebuer 1942 and Psectrocladius oligosetus Wülker 1956 . Throughout the year Macropelopia adaucta Kieffer 1916 , Procladius choreus (Meigen 1804) , Ablabesmyia phatta (Egger 1864) and Telmatopelopia nemorum (Goetghebuer 1921) were found. Full record information is summarized in Table 1 .

Figures

Figure 1. Radostínské rašeliniště National Nature Reserve, Lasiodiamesa gracilis sampling site (site nr. S15 in the List). Photograph taken during sampling 22 March 2015.