Chironomidae

Checklist of Diptera of the Czech Republic and Slovakia

Chironomidae Newman, 1834

Peter Bitušík¹ & Karel Brabec²

¹Department of Landscape Ecology, Faculty of Sciences, Matej Bel University, SK–974 01 Banská Bystrica, Slovakia; bitusik@orangemail.sk

²Institute of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Sciences, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic; brabec@sci.muni.cz

Small to medium-sized flies, 1.0-10.0 mm long, with sexual dimorphism in the morphology of the antennae, wings and abdomen. Eyes dichoptic, ommatidia sometimes with microtrichia between them ('hairy' eyes), functional mandibles generally absent, remaining elements of the mouthparts present. Legs long and slender. Terminalia not inverted. The larvae are elongate, cylindrical, 1-60 mm long, with well-developed, sclerotized, non-retractile prognathous head, and generally with an apneustic respiratory system; paired parapods with apical claws situated on the first thoracic and terminal abdominal segments, although variable fusions and/or reductions occur; usually two pairs of anal tubules behind and between the posterior parapods; terminal abdominal segment with paired procerci, each with a tuft of setae. The general shape of the pupa is very similar to that of the pupae of many aquatic nematocerous families. The morphology of the thoracic horns (respiratory organs), armature of abdominal tergites and sternites (distribution patterns of spines, spinules, hooklets), and features of the terminal abdominal segments are important for identification to species level. The family is very widely distributed and is known from all zoogeographic regions. The immature stages of the majority of species inhabit various types of aquatic or moist habitats, although many terrestrial species are also known. Some species thrive in brackish water, intertidal pools, and few are truly marine. Chironomid larvae ingest a wide variety of foods: algae, detritus with associated microorganisms, macrophytes, woody debris and invertebrates. The adults feed on nectar or honeydew.

There are estimated to be more than 10,000 species of Chironomidae worldwide (Cranston 1995b), and nearly 1200 species are known in Europe (Sæther & Spies 2004). The updated version (Bitušík 2004b) of the last chironomid checklist (Bitušík & Losos 1997) recorded 207 species from the Czech Republic and 351 species from Slovakia. Since then, information about further species new to both countries has been published (Bitušík 2004a, 2005, 2006a, b, Bitušík et al.2006, Brabec & Langton 2006, Hamerlík 2005, 2006, Hamerlík & Bošáková 2005). The present checklist consists of 442 species: 259 from the Czech Republic (147 from Bohemia, 190 from Moravia), and 378 from Slovakia.

The basic characteristics of the family were given recently by Cranston (1995a), and Sæther et al. (2000). The chironomid fauna of the Czech Republic and Slovakia can be identified with the keys by Wiederholm (1983, 1986, 1989), Sæther (1977), Pinder (1978), Cranston (1982), Losos (1996), Bitušík (2000), Langton (1991), and Langton and Visser (2003).