Chironomidae (Diptera) of Croatia with notes on the diversity and distribution in various habitat types

Abstract

The family of non-biting midges (Diptera, Chironomidae) represent one of the most common and abundant group in freshwaters, inhabiting a wide variety of habitats and ecological niches. Although there is a long tradition of limnological research in Croatia, to date no extensive species list has been made for this insect family. Thus, we summarized the results of our research and reviewed published data on chironomid fauna of Croatia in various freshwater habitat types, including extreme ones, such as caves, peatbogs or marine littoral. A total of 239 species were recorded representing five subfamilies: Chironominae (125 species) Orthocladiinae (83 species), Tanypodinae (23 species), Diamesinae (6 species) and Prodiamesinae (2 species). The most frequent species were Cricotopus bicinctus, Dicrotendipes nervosus, Synorthocladius semivirens, each found in more than 20% of the studied localities. Ablabesmyia monilis and Procladius choreus represented the most frequent Tanypodinae species, recorded in more than 12% and 17% of the sites, respectively. The research of chironomid ecology, diversity and distribution continues, which will provide new data and information, but this first comprehensive checklist provides a good starting point for those studying Chironomidae or other freshwater Diptera, in Croatia and Europe.

Chironomidae in shallow water bodies of a protected lowland freshwater floodplain ecosystem

“…sylvestris is a taxon known to be highly abundant in epiphyton, 94 it can differ in some ponds depending on the macrophyte diversity and development. 93 Nevertheless, as a ubiquitous and cosmopolitan species, it was in previous studies often recorded on different substrates in the floodplain, 14 and it was one of the taxa more frequently found in both microhabitats during this research. Some authors mention Psectrocladius sordidellus (Zetterstedt, 1838) to be abundant in the epiphyton since it is more impervious to water level drops.…”

“…This was also recorded in Italian ponds and is concurrent with the species’ known ecology. 31 , 54 In the previous research of epiphytic chironomid community, 93 C . gr.…”

“…pillipes for Croatia. 93 We have not previously recorded it in the Kopački Rit floodplain, not even in the small pond Mali Sakadaš, where we made a preliminary pond diversity study in this area. 14 To conclude, Chironomidae larvae are diverse and abundant in different microhabitats of a floodplain, filling different ecological niches.…”

“…This was also recorded in Italian ponds and is concurrent with the species' known ecology. 31,54 In the previous research of epiphytic chironomid community, 93 C. gr. scutellata was recorded in high numbers in a floating dense macrophyte mat in the C ̌onakut channel.…”

Diversity of the non-biting midges (Diptera: Chironomidae) in continental salt marshes in Serbia

“…The absence of fish in continental salt marshes allows development of diverse chironomid assemblages that represent a mixture of halobiont and halophil species, but also eurytopic species with high geographical distribution can be abundant (Boda et al, 2019). Previous research on chironomid communities on the Balkan Peninsula has been conducted majorly in different freshwater ecosystems (Milošević et al, 2011; Płóciennik & Pešić, 2012; Bitušík & Trnkova, 2019; Popović et al, 2016, 2022; Dorić et al, 2020; Gadawski et al, 2022; Čerba et al, 2023; Ergović et al, 2023) with some records on chironomid species in coastal regions in Montenegro and Croatia (Płóciennik et al, 2012; Čerba et al, 2020). To date, chironomid fauna in continental salt marshes on Balkan Peninsula has not been investigated.…”