Towards the systematics and diversity of Neotropical Tanytarsus van der Wulp (Diptera: Chironomidae): news from Colombia.

Abstract

Our study pertains to the systematics and diversity of non-biting midges of the genus Tanytarsus van der Wulp, 1874 from the Neotropical region and in particular, Colombia, a country scarcely studied for these dipterans to date. Adult male specimens collected from the Colombian Llanos and Andes biomes belong to five species described as new in the present paper: Tanytarsus colombiensis sp. nov. (placed in the caipira species group, here defined), T. germani sp. nov. and T. gnomon sp. nov. (both placed in the curvicristatus group, here defined), T. lulu sp. nov. (in the ligulatus group, here defined) and T. meta sp. nov. (the riopreto group). Also an illustrated brief redescription of the adult male of T. hastatus Sublette et Sasa, 1994 is provided. After reclassification of Caladomyia Swedal, 1981, the name accepted as a junior synonym of Tanytarsus, several species names became homonyms, thus they are here proposed to be replaced with substitute names, as follows: Tanytarsus reiffi nom. nov. pro Tanytarsus reissi (Reiff, 2000); Tanytarsus sanseverinoi nom. nov. pro Tanytarsus angelae Trivinho-Strixino et Shimabukuro, 2017; Tanytarsus trivinhostrixinoi nom. nov. pro Tanytarsus fittkaui Sanseverino et Trivinho-Strixino, 2010. Rheotanytarsus breda (Roback, 1960) comb. nov. is excluded from Tanytarsus. An annotated checklist of Neotropical Tanytarsus, with 89 species, is also presented.