Karyotypes of Chironomus Meigen (Diptera: Chironomidae) species from Africa
2011
The karyotypes of six African Chironomus species (Ch. alluaudi Kieffer, 1913, Ch. transvaalensis Kieffer, 1923, Ch. sp. Nakuru, Ch. formosipennis Kieffer, 1908, Ch. prope pulcher Wiedemann, 1830, Ch. sp. Kisumu) were investigated; four of these karyotypes were described for the first time (Ch. sp. Nakuru, Ch. formosipennis, Ch. prope pulcher, Ch. sp. Kisumu). Of the six Chironomus karyotypes, three had “pseudothummi” cytocomplex chromosome arms combinations AE CD BF G (Ch. alluaudi, Ch. transvaalensis, Ch. sp. Nakuru), two had “thummi” cytocomplex arms combinations AB CD EF G (Ch. formosipennis, Ch. prope pulcher), and one had “parathummi” arm combinations AC BF DE G (Ch. sp. Kisumu). Thus, three of the ten main cytocomplexes known were detected in Africa. Detailed photomaps of all chromosome arms, with the exception of arms B and G, were prepared for the karyotypes of Ch. alluaudi, Ch. transvaalensis, Ch. sp. Nakuru, Ch. prope pulcher; the karyotypes of Ch. formosipennis, Ch. sp. Kisumu could only be fragmentarily mapped. Endemic African banding sequences were characteristic for most of the chromosomal arms in all species studied. However, basic sequences, which can be present in different Chironomus species on different continents (Wülker, 1980; Kiknadze et al., 2008), were also detected also in several African species (Ch. alluaudi, Ch. sp. Nakuru, and Ch. formosipennis). The banding sequences of African species studied allow discussion of the derivation of modern banding patterns from hypothetical species, living before separation of cytocomplexes and continents.
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