Thread subject: Diptera.info :: Candidate Thaumaleidae larva, NE HU, August

Posted by atylotus on 17-08-2009 13:21
#7

This larva of Thaumaleidae was photographed from a springbrook in the hilly (sandy) part in the centre of The Netherlands (Duno Fonteinalle, Heveadorp, Gelderland, The Netherlands) on 18 sept. 2006. As only Thamaulea testacea has been recorded as an adult in The Netherlands this must also be the larva of Th. testacea. It can readily be identified from Chironomids by the hypognathous head, the presence of prothoracic spiracles, an unpaired proleg armed with a series of curved sclerotized hooks, but most of all, abdominal segment 8 has a pair of stigmata flnked by a pair of finger-shaped processes. I believe that in southern Europe you have more than one genus. Thaumaleidae are characteristic inhabitants of the hygropetric zones in springs, streams and small rivers. In the Netherlands the species (family) is rare, but it becomes more common in Germany and yet more in the south and east. Wagner in Nillson (1997) says that in the Alps there are more than 40 species! I know nothing about the adults.

Pediciidae are typical inhabitants of brooks. Dicranota is (in The Netherlands) the most encountered genus in brooks and small rivers. Dicranota has paired prolegs with hooks on the ventral side of segment 3-8. Pedicia larvae are mostly encountered along the banks of streams in rotten wood, coarse organic material or underneath leaves . Pedicia is very large larvae, resembling Tipulidae. Tricyphona is rare in The Netherlands, and I have only found this genus once in a small stream. But Brindle (1967) has found Tricyphona also in moorland pools with Sphagnum (most likely another species than mine).

Edited by atylotus on 17-08-2009 13:50