Oriental Chironomus: C. c.f. transvaalensis

**Immatures of Chironomus transvaalensis Kieffer 1923**

In BOLD Bin: BOLD:AAW3995. - members of the C. transvaalensis complex but few if any C. transvaalensis

For completeness, the original description of Kieffer is given below, along with the basics of the Freeman (1957) description:

Type;
Described on basis of adult female:

Translation of the Kieffer (1923) type description of the female:
Head yellowish.  Eyes separated by less than their terminal width, slightly thinned at the top, this part less long than wide.  Frontal lobes very small.
Palps long, the 4th article longer.  Antennae brownish yellowish, 6th segment brown black, twice as long as the 5th, 2nd narrowed in the middle, neck a little longer than wide, 3-5 with neck a little shorter than the knot (pedicel?).  Mesonotum whitish, like the scutellum, three shortened bands, vitelline metanotum and mesosternum, median band divided in its posterior half into two parallel parts and brown black.
Halteres greenish white.  Wing hyaline, crossvein not darkened, cubital likewise as close to the wing tip as the discoidal, bifurcation beneath the transversal.  Legs yellowish white, 5th tarsal segment and the extremity of 1-3 brown black, anterior metatarsus a half longer than the tibia (i.e. LR 1.5), 2-4 sub-equal, 4th twice the length of the 5th.  Abdomen brown black, straight, first two segments light greenish.  L. 5mm. Transvaal: Maboli, Lydenburg.

Kieffer, J.J. 1923 Chironomariae de l'Afrique du Sud, par l.Abbé, p.386

Pupa: Length 6 mm. Spur of segment VIII with a single straight point. Number of hooks at base of segment II not given.
Tergites III-VI with roughly square patches of shagreen, coarser towards the posterior margin in tergites IV and V. Shagreen begins to disappear on TVI. (see Figs. 1e-g below)

Fourth instar larva: McLachlan states that the larva of this species is the largest in the Southern African region (Length 15 mm). His figures (1a-d & 1h) indicate that the larva is probably a plumosus-type. Anal tubules very long (see 1h, below).
The mentum appears very curved in 1b (below) 148 µm wide with the usual 15 teeth, central tooth closest to type 1B. Antenna short (100 µm long) with 2nd segment quite long, AR about 1. Mandible shown with pale 4th inner tooth (type 1A); total distance over teeth 70 µm.

Illustration of immature morphology from McLachlan (1969)

Cytology: Wuelker, Devai & Devai (1989) published the chromosome banding sequences for Kenya populations:
No heterochromatin at centromeres, nucleoli in arms C and G, inversion polymorphism in arms C and G
transA1: 1-2c, 10-12, 3i-c, 5-9, 2d-3ab, 4d-a, 13-19
transB1: – not mapped
transC1: 1-2e, 11d-12b, 2f-6b, 13-15, 8-11c, 6gh, 17a-16, 7d-a, 6f-c, 17b-22 (including nucleolus)
transD1: 1-2, 4b-7ec, 12-7f, 19h-a -13, 4a-3, 20-24
transE1: 1-2b, 5-10b, 3e-2c, 4-3f, 10c-13
transF1: 1-2a, 10-3f, 14f-16, 14e-11, 2b-3e, 17-23
trans G1 – not mapped, but small nucleolus

The African and the Israel/Pakistan species are obviously closely related but have been isolated for long enough for differentiation of COI sequence and cytology (at least of arm G) to occur.

Found:
Transvaal (now South Africa) - Maboki, Lydenburg (Type locality).
Kenya - actual location uncertain
Malawi – Blantyre (-15.78°S, 35.00°E)

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