Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Biodiversity Data Journal logoLink to Biodiversity Data Journal
. 2023 Oct 24;11:e111925. doi: 10.3897/BDJ.11.e111925

New species and records of Pseudochironomini Sæther, 1977 (Diptera, Chironomidae) from the Dominican Republic

Trond Andersen 1, Amelie Höcherl 2, Jeremy Hübner 2, Caroline Chimeno 2, Xiaolong Lin 3, Viktor A Baranov 4,✉
PMCID: PMC10838072  PMID: 38312335

Abstract

Background

Pseudochironomini is a relatively small and poorly-studied tribe of subfamily Chironominae (Diptera, Chironomidae).

New information

Pseudochironomusruthae Andersen & Baranov sp. nov. is described and figured, based on a single male collected in a light trap at Matadero, Dominican Republic. The species can be separated from its congeners by the combination of the following characters: wing without dark bands, dorsocentrals in partly double row and apex of superior volsella rounded. The species is the first Pseudochironomus species to be formally recorded and described from the Caribbean. In addition, a new record of Manoapahayokeensis Jacobsen & Perry, 2002 from the Dominican Republic is given. One specimen was DNA-barcoded and the barcode is given.

Keywords: Chironominae, Pseudochironomini, Pseudochironomus , Manoa , new species, new records, Dominican Republic, Neotropical Region

Introduction

The tribe Pseudochironomini within the subfamily Chironominae was established by Sæther (1977a). The tribe is characterised by having a black comb on fore tibia, similar to the combs on mid- and hind tibiae and, in the male, the median volsella is generally present. Originally, the genera Aedokritus Roback, 1958, Manoa Fittkau, 1963, Megacentron Freeman, 1961, Pseudochironomus Malloch, 1915, Psilochironomus Sublette, 1966 and Riethia Kieffer, 1917 were included in the tribe (Sæther 1977a). However, Psilochironomus is now considered to be a nomen dubium (Spies and Reiss 1996). Later, Andersen (2016) added the genus Madachironomus Andersen, 2016, based on two species from Madagascar to the tribe. According to Cranston (2003), the tribe Pseudochironomini might not be monophyletic.

The genus Pseudochironomus was described by Malloch (1915), based on P.richardsoni Malloch, 1915 from Illinois, USA. Pseudochironomus is the most species-rich genus in the tribe. About 11 species are known from the Nearctic Region and one or two species from the Palaearctic Region (Epler et al. 2013). The Nearctic species were reviewed by Sæther (1977b). From the Neotropical Region, Kieffer (1925) described P. viridis Kieffer 1925 from Argentina. Roback (1960) recorded the species from Peru and re-described the male. Later, Paggi and Rodriguez-Garay (2015) re-described and figured the male, female, pupa and larva in more detail, based on material from Argentina. Recently, Shimabukuro et al. (2017) and Trivinho-Strixino and Shimabukuro (2018) described eight new Pseudochironomus species from Brazil and Andersen (2023) described a new species from Mexico and Costa Rica. Additionally, Watson and Heyn (1993) reported at least 11 (likely undescribed) species of Pseudochironomus as well as Pseudochironomuscf.viridis.

The genus Manoa was described by Fittkau (1963), based on M.obscura Fittkau, 1963 from Brazil. Later, M.tangae Andersen & Sæther, 1997 (Andersen and Sæther 1997) from Tanzania, M.pahayokeensis Jacobsen & Perry, 2002 (Jacobsen and Perry 2002) from Florida, USA and M.xianjuensis Qi & Lin, 2017 (Qi et al. 2017) from China were added.

No Pseudochironomus species have been described from the Caribbean so far, but Silva et al. (2015) listed the genus from the Dominican Republic, as well as reporting Manoapahayokeensis Jacobsen & Perry, 2002. Below, we describe a new species of Pseudochironomus from the country. It can be separated from other Pseudochironomus species by having the wing without dark bands, dorsocentrals in a partly double row and the apex of superior volsella is rounded. We also report a new record of M.pahayokeensis from the Dominican Republic.

Materials and methods

When collected, the specimens were preserved in 80% ethanol and later slide-mounted in Euparal following the procedure outlined by Sæther (1969). The morphological nomenclature follows Sæther (1980).

The specimens were collected under the collection permit of Ministro de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales of Dominican Republic for the project “Long peace of the Caribbean – have biota of the Dominican Republic really remained virtually unchanged for over 13 million years?” and were exported under export permit # VAPB-07404. The holotype of Pseudochironomusruthae Andersen & Baranov sp. nov. is deposited in the collection at the Department of Natural History, University Museum of Bergen, Norway [ZMBN]. The material of Manoapahayokeensis Jacobsen & Perry is housed in the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology (SNSB-ZSM).

The DNA was extracted from the material at the SNSB molecular lab using the NucleoSpin 96 Tissue (Macherey-Nagel) DNA extraction kit after having undergone an overnight lysis at 56°C. The COI barcodes were amplified using the LepF1 and LepR1 standard barcoding primers (Leray et al. 2013) using a Biometra Thermocycler (Analytik Jena) and the following PCR conditions: 2 min at 94°C; first cycle set (5 repeats): 30 s denaturation at 94°C, 40 s annealing at 45°C and 60 s extension at 72°C. Second cycle set (35 repeats): 30 s denaturation at 94°C, 40 s annealing at 51°C and 60 s extension at 72°C; final elongation 10 min at 72°C. The PCR products were cleaned-up using the ExoSAP-IT Express (Thermo Fisher) Kit, then sent to the LMU Sequencing Service at Biozentrum (Martinsried, Germany) for Sanger sequencing. Every specimen’s COI barcode was sequenced as a forward and reverse strand. The traces were edited in BioEdit Hall (1999) and a consensus sequence of the forward and reverse strands was obtained and uploaded to Barcode of Life Data Systems (www.boldsystems.org) (Ratnasingham and Hebert 2007). The original traces were uploaded as well.

Taxon treatments

Pseudochironomus ruthae

Andersen & Baranov sp. nov.

F0322AB7-A93A-5EB2-A425-76F13A5D3094

A4FFA263-932D-4734-A24E-44764E3E0AFC

Materials

  1. Type status: Holotype. Occurrence: occurrenceID: A5E2B29A-388F-5FCA-9FF3-728AD814291D; Taxon: scientificName: Pseudochironomusruthae Andersen & Baranov; Location: continent: Central America; waterBody: Caribbean; islandGroup: Greater Antilles; island: Hispaniola; country: Dominican Republic; countryCode: DO; stateProvince: Azua; municipality: Guayabal; locality: El Naranjito Matadero; minimumElevationInMeters: 1400; maximumElevationInMeters: 1400; verbatimLatitude: 18 40 27.70N; verbatimLongitude: 70 42 03.30W; georeferencedBy: Amelie Höcherl; Event: samplingProtocol: light trap, Amelie Höcherl; eventDate: 10 November 2019; startDayOfYear: 10 Nov; endDayOfYear: 10 Nov; year: 2019; month: November; day: 10; habitat: Location next to a nearly dry stream in a forested area; Record Level: type: PhysicalObject; language: en; rights: Reconocimiento 3.0 España (CC BY 3.0 ES); rightsHolder: CSIC; institutionID: University Museum of Bergen, Norway; institutionCode: ZMBN; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Description

Male (n = 1). Total length 4.64 mm. Wing length 2.12 mm (Fig. 1). Total length/wing length 2.19. Wing length/length of profemur 2.24.

Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Open in a new tab

Pseudochironomusruthae Andersen & Baranov sp. nov., male. Wing.

Colouration: Head and thorax dark brown; abdomen and legs brown, abdominal tergites VII and VIII with posterior lighter brown subrectangular field.

Antenna: AR 2.28. Ultimate flagellomere 1004 μm long.

Head: Temporals apparently about 25 in double to multiple rows. Clypeus with about 20 setae. Tentorium and stipes not measurable. Palp segment lengths (in μm): 67, 94, 162, 201 and 267. Third palpomere with all together four sensilla clavata in two pits apically, longest 21 μm long.

Thorax: Antepronotum with seven setae. With about 37 dorsocentrals in mainly double rows. Pre-alars six in single line. Scutellum with about 28 setae.

Wing (Fig. 1): VR 1.06. Brachiolum with two setae, R with 15 setae, remaining veins and cells bare. Squama with 17 setae.

Legs: Spur of fore tibia 66 μm long, spurs of mid-tibia 79 μm and 68 μm long, spurs of hind tibia 90 μm and 75 μm long. Width at apex of fore tibia 62 μm, of mid-tibia 77 μm, of hind tibia 80 μm. Sensilla chaetica five on ta1 of both mid- and hind legs. Lengths and proportions of legs as in Table 1.

Table 1.

Lengths (in µm) and proportions of leg segments in Pseudochironomusruthae Andersen & Baranov sp. nov., male (n = 1).

fe ti ta1 ta2 ta3 ta4 ta5 LR BV SV BR
p1 980 1193 1095 507 409 286 131 0.918 2.454 1.985 2.18
p2 1087 1062 547 302 221 163 98 0.515 3.438 3.925 2.04
p3 1144 1201 703 400 335 204 114 0.585 2.891 3.337 2.12
Open in a new tab

Hypopygium (Fig. 2): Tergite IX with broadly rounded posterior margin, with small median notch with single strong setae on weak tubercle to each side; with 43 additional dorsal and marginal setae. Laterosternite IX with four setae. Transverse sternapodeme straight, 138 μm long, with strong oral projections. Phallapodeme 164 μm long. Gonocoxite 248 μm long. Superior volsella pediform, 113 μm long, 41 μm wide medially, with rounded projection anteriomesally with single sensilla subapically. Inferior volsella with subovate apical part and base set of centrline of the hypopigium; apical part 104 μm wide, mesally with ridge with row of setae. Median volsella digitate, 17 μm long, with two strong and one weaker seta apically. Pars ventralis 88 μm long, narrow, apparently split at 1/3, apical parts 11 μm wide at base. Gonostylus 133 μm long. HR = 1.87; HV = 3.49.

Figure 2.

Figure 2.

Open in a new tab

Pseudochironomusruthae Andersen & Baranov sp. nov., male. a Hypopygium, dorsal view; b Hypopygium with tergite IX removed, dorsal view; c Hypopygium, ventral view; d Superior volsella; e Inferior volsella; f Median volsella; g Pars ventralis.

Female and immatures. Unknown.

Diagnosis

The species can be separated from its congeners by the combination of the following characters: wing without dark bands, dorsocentrals in partly double row and apex of superior volsella rounded.

Etymology

Named after Ruth Bastardo who runs the aquatic ecology group and without whom the specimen would not have been collected.

Distribution

Dominican Republic: El Naranjito Matadero, 18°40'27.70"N, 70°42'03.30"E.

Taxon discussion

The new species is quite distinct from other described Neotropical Pseudochironomus species by the combination of having a wing without dark bands, dorsocentrals in a partly double row and apex of the superior volsella bluntly rounded. It is most similar to the Nearctic Pseudochironomusrichardsoni Malloch, 1915 (Sæther 1977a), but differs on the narrower median volsella of Pseudochironomusruthae (vs. wider conical one of the P.richardsoni), more triangular inferior of volsella of P.ruthae, rather than an elongated one of P.richardsoni; additionally, P.ruthae has a lower number of dorsocentrals (37 vs. 59 in P.richardsoni) (Sæther 1977a). In the key to the Pseudochironomini occurring in Brazil, it falls next to P.jordensis Shimabukuro & Trivinho-Strixino, 2017 and P.mocidade Shimabukuro & Trivinho-Strixino, 2017, as the wing of the adult male is longer than 3.0 mm and the posterior margin of terigte IX has a median notch (Trivinho-Strixino and Shimabukuro 2018, Shimabukuro et al. 2017). Hovewer, P.ruthae is distinct from all other South American Pseudochironomus species by possessing a superior volsella with a blunt, rounded apex, instead of the elongated beak-like protrusions, apparent in both P.jordensis and P.mocidade. Unfortunately, we were not able to DNA sequence the new species and its phylogenetic relationships to other representatives of the genus will require further elucidation.

Manoa pahayokeensis

Jacobsen & Perry, 2002

DDA78357-E056-56F9-A923-788998033929

Materials

  1. Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: Viktor Baranov; individualCount: 1; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; occurrenceID: AB3D8DCE-D9FB-54E6-BE0C-8665712880A1; Taxon: scientificName: Manoapahayokeensis; Location: country: Dominican Republic; stateProvince: Monseńor Nouel Province; locality: Blanco; verbatimElevation: 950 m; verbatimCoordinates: 18 88 49.18N 70 50 74.59W; decimalLatitude: 18.884918; decimalLongitude: -70.507459; georeferenceProtocol: GPS; Identification: identifiedBy: Viktor Baranov; dateIdentified: 2021; Event: samplingProtocol: sweeping; eventDate: 30th of November 2019; Record Level: language: en; institutionID: Bavarian State Collection of Zoology; institutionCode: SNSB-ZSM; collectionCode: Diptera; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

  2. Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: Viktor Baranov; individualCount: 1; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; occurrenceID: 82D39763-390C-50F7-A17F-DB00C4D6D050; Taxon: scientificName: Manoapahayokeensis; Location: country: Dominican Republic; stateProvince: Monseńor Nouel Province; locality: Blanco; verbatimElevation: 950 m; verbatimCoordinates: 18 88 49.18N 70 50 74.59W; decimalLatitude: 18.884918; decimalLongitude: -70.507459; georeferenceProtocol: GPS; Identification: identifiedBy: Viktor Baranov; dateIdentified: 2021; Event: samplingProtocol: sweeping; eventDate: 30th of November 2019; Record Level: language: en; institutionID: Bavarian State Collection of Zoology; institutionCode: SNSB-ZSM; collectionCode: Diptera; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

  3. Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: Viktor Baranov; individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: adult; occurrenceID: D342B44B-3635-5B5B-B8DB-265AA98B7F6D; Taxon: scientificName: Manoapahayokeensis; Location: country: Dominican Republic; stateProvince: Monseńor Nouel Province; locality: Blanco; verbatimElevation: 950 m; verbatimCoordinates: 18 88 49.18N 70 50 74.59W; decimalLatitude: 18.884918; decimalLongitude: -70.507459; georeferenceProtocol: GPS; Identification: identifiedBy: Viktor Baranov; dateIdentified: 2021; Event: samplingProtocol: sweeping; eventDate: 30th of November 2019; Record Level: language: en; institutionID: Bavarian State Collection of Zoology; institutionCode: SNSB-ZSM; collectionCode: Diptera; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

  4. Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: Viktor Baranov; individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: adult; occurrenceID: 774717AE-D8EE-59E8-9651-36419A680D8B; Taxon: scientificName: Manoapahayokeensis; Location: country: Dominican Republic; stateProvince: Monseńor Nouel Province; locality: Blanco; verbatimElevation: 950 m; verbatimCoordinates: 18 88 49.18N 70 50 74.59W; decimalLatitude: 18.884918; decimalLongitude: -70.507459; georeferenceProtocol: GPS; Identification: identifiedBy: Viktor Baranov; dateIdentified: 2021; Event: samplingProtocol: sweeping; eventDate: 30th of November 2019; Record Level: language: en; institutionID: Bavarian State Collection of Zoology; institutionCode: SNSB-ZSM; collectionCode: Diptera; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Taxon discussion

This species was originally described from the Everglades in Florida, USA and has previously been recorded from Monte Blanco, in the eastern parts of the Dominican Republic (Silva et al. 2015, Jacobsen and Perry 2002). During the present project, two males (Fig. 3) and two females were collected with sweep nets at Rio Blanco, in the central part of the Dominican Republic. The specimens were collected next to a small, approximately 6 m wide, fast flowing river Rio Blanco.

Figure 3.

Figure 3.

Open in a new tab

Manoapahayokeensis Jacobsen & Perry, male. Hypopygium, dorsal.

Notes

COI sequences of M.pahayokeensis were deposited in GenBаnk under accession numbers OR670329 and OR670330 (obtained from specimens "a" and "b", respectively).

Discussion

The description of a new species of Pseudochironomus together with additional records of Manoapahayokeensis indicate a potentially higher unrecorded diversity of Pseudochironomini in Hispaniola and the Greater Antilleans.

Supplementary Material

XML Treatment for Pseudochironomus ruthae
XML Treatment for Manoa pahayokeensis

Acknowledgements

We are indebted to Ruth Bastardo and her team from the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo for help in organising the project in the Dominican Republic and for all help during the fieldwork. We are grateful to the Ministry Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales of the Dominican Republic for the permission to collect and export the specimens for the present study. The study was supported by the “BioNa - Early Career Award of the Faculty of Biology/2019” awarded to Viktor Baranov. Viktor Baranov is supported in his work by “Ramon y Cajal Fellowship, RyC2021-031144I” by the Spanish State Research Agency (Agencia Estatal de Investigación). Viktor Baranov received funds supporting the publication fees through the CSIC Open Access Publication Support Initiative from the CSIC Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI).

References

  1. Andersen T, Sæther O A. First record of Manoa Fittkau and tribe Pseudochironomini Sæther from the Afrotropical region (Diptera: Chironomidae: Chironominae. Entomologica scandinavica. 1997;28:311–317. doi: 10.1163/187631297X00105. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  2. Andersen Trond. Madachironomus, a new genus of tribe Pseudochironomini (Diptera: Chironomidae, Chironominae) from Madagascar. CHIRONOMUS Journal of Chironomidae Research. 2016;29:15–26. doi: 10.5324/cjcr.v0i29.2113. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  3. Andersen Trond. A new, darkwinged species of Pseudochironomus Malloch, 1915 (Diptera: Chironomidae) from Mexico and Costa Rica. Aquatic Insects. 2023:1–9. doi: 10.1080/01650424.2023.2243596. [DOI]
  4. Cranston P S. The oriental genus Shangomyia Sæther & Wang (Chironomidae: Diptera): immature stages, biology, putative relationships and the evolution of wood mining in chironomid larvae. The Raffles Museum Bulletin of Zoology. 2003;51:179–186. [Google Scholar]
  5. Epler J. H., Ekrem T., Cranston P. S. The larvae of Chironominae (Diptera: Chironomidae) of the Holarctic region - Keys and diagnoses. Insect Systematics and Evolution. 2013;Supplement 66:387–556. [Google Scholar]
  6. Fittkau E. J. Manoa, eine neue Gattung der Chironomidae (Diptera) aus Zentralamazonien. Chironomidenstudien IX. Archiv für Hydrobiologie. 1963;59:373–390. [Google Scholar]
  7. Hall T. A. BioEdit: A user-friendly biological sequence alignment editor and analysis program for Windows 95/98/NT. Nucleic Acids Symposium Series. 1999;41:95–98. [Google Scholar]
  8. Jacobsen Richard E., Perry Sue A. A new species of Manoa (Diptera: Chironomidae) from Everglades National Park. Journal of the North American Benthological Society. 2002;21(2):314–325. doi: 10.2307/1468418. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  9. Kieffer J J. Chironomides de la République Argentine. Annales de la Société Scientifique de Bruxelles. 1925;44(2):73–92. [Google Scholar]
  10. Leray Matthieu, Yang Joy Y, Meyer Christopher P, Mills Suzanne C, Agudelo Natalia, Ranwez Vincent, Boehm Joel T, Machida Ryuji J. A new versatile primer set targeting a short fragment of the mitochondrial COI region for metabarcoding metazoan diversity: application for characterizing coral reef fish gut contents. Frontiers in Zoology. 2013;10(1) doi: 10.1186/1742-9994-10-34. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Malloch J R. The Chironomidae, or midges, of Illinois, with particular reference to the species occurring in the Illinois River. Bulletin of the Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History. 1915;10:275–543. doi: 10.21900/j.inhs.v10.376. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  12. Paggi A. C., Rodriguez-Garay G. N. The presence of species of Pseudochironomus Malloch, 1915 (Diptera: Chironomidae) in watercourses of Chaco Serrano Ecoregion (Argentina, South America) Zootaxa. 2015;3957:334–341. doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.3957.3.6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Qi X, Wang X. -H., Andersen T., Lin X. A new species of Manoa Fittkau (Diptera: Chironomidae), with DNA barcodes from Xianju National Park, Oriental China. Zootaxa. 2017;4231(3):398–408. doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.4231.3.6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Ratnasingham SUJEEVAN, Hebert PAUL D. N. BARCODING: bold: The Barcode of Life Data System (http://www.barcodinglife.org) Molecular Ecology Notes. 2007;7(3):355–364. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-8286.2007.01678.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Roback S S. Results of the Catherwood Peruvian-Amazon Expedition. New species of South American Tendipedidae (Diptera. Transactions of the American Entomological Society. 1960;86:87–107. [Google Scholar]
  16. Sæther O A. Some Nearctic Pondonominae, Diamesinae, and Orthocladiinae (Diptera: Chironomidae) Bulletin of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada. 1969;170:1–154. [Google Scholar]
  17. Sæther O A. Taxonomic studies on Chironomidae: Nanocladius, Pseudochironomus and the Harnischia complex. Bulletin of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada. 1977;1977:1–204. [Google Scholar]
  18. Sæther O A. Female genitalia in Chironomidae and other Nematocera: morphology, phylogenies, keys. Bulletin of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada. 1977;1977:1–143. [Google Scholar]
  19. Sæther O. A. Glossary of chironomid morphology terminology (Diptera: Chironomidae) Entomologica Scandinavica. 1980;Supplement 14:1–51. [Google Scholar]
  20. Shimabukuro ERIKA MAYUMI, Pepinelli MATEUS, Trivinho-Strixino SUSANA. Brazilian Pseudochironomini (Diptera: Chironomidae) Part 1. New Pseudochironomus Malloch from highlands. Zootaxa. 2017;4317(1) doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.4317.1.6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Silva Fabio Laurindo da, Wiedenbrug Sofia, Farrell Brian Dorsey. A preliminary survey of the non-biting midges (Diptera: Chironomidae) of the Dominican Republic. CHIRONOMUS Journal of Chironomidae Research. 2015;28:12–19. doi: 10.5324/cjcr.v0i28.1925. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  22. Spies M., Reiss F. Catalog and bibliography of Neotropical and Mexican Chironomidae (Insecta, Diptera) Spixiana. 1996;Supplement 22:61–119. [Google Scholar]
  23. Trivinho-Strixino Susana, Shimabukuro Erika Mayumi. Brazilian Pseudochironomini (Diptera: Chironomidae) Part 2. New Pseudochironomus and Riethia species. Zootaxa. 2018;4403(2) doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.4403.2.2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Watson C N, Heyn M W. A preliminary survey of the Chironomidae (Diptera) of Costa Rica, with emphasis on the lotic fauna. Netherlands Journal of Aquatic Ecology. 1993;26:257–262. doi: 10.1007/BF02255249. [DOI] [Google Scholar]

Associated Data

This section collects any data citations, data availability statements, or supplementary materials included in this article.

Supplementary Materials

XML Treatment for Pseudochironomus ruthae
BDJ.11.e111925-treatment1.xml (23.4KB, xml)
XML Treatment for Manoa pahayokeensis
BDJ.11.e111925-treatment2.xml (23.2KB, xml)

Articles from Biodiversity Data Journal are provided here courtesy of Pensoft Publishers

RESOURCES