Improved Chironomid Barcode Database Enhances Identification of Water Mite Dietary Content

Abstract

Chironomids are one of the most biodiverse and abundant members of freshwater ecosystems. They are a food source for many organisms, including fish and water mites. The accurate identification of chironomids is essential for many applications in ecological research, including determining which chironomid species are present in the diets of diverse predators. Larval and adult chironomids from diverse habitats, including lakes, rivers, inland gardens, coastal vegetation, and nearshore habitats of the Great Lakes, were collected from 2012 to 2019. After morphological identification of chironomids, DNA was extracted and cytochrome oxidase I (COI) barcodes were PCR amplified and sequenced. Here we describe an analysis of biodiverse adult and larval chironomids in the Great Lakes region of North America based on new collections to improve chironomid identification by curating a chironomid DNA barcode database, thereby expanding the diversity and taxonomic specificity of DNA reference libraries for the Chironomidae family. In addition to reporting many novel chironomid DNA barcodes, we demonstrate here the use of this chironomid COI barcode database to improve the identification of DNA barcodes of prey in the liquefied diets of water mites. The species identifications of the COI barcodes of chironomids ingested by Lebertia davidcooki and L. quinquemaculosa are more diverse for L. davidcooki and include Parachironomus abortivus, Cryptochironomus ponderosus. Parachironomus tenuicaudatus, Glyptotendipes senilis, Dicrotendipes modestus, Chironomus riparius, Chironomus entis/plumosus, Chironomus maturus, Chironomus crassicaudatus, Endochironomus subtendens, Cricotopus sylvestris, Cricotopus festivellus, Orthocladius obumbratus, Tanypus punctipennis, Rheotanytarsus exiguus gr., and Paratanytarsus nr. bituberculatus.

On the significance of wetlands: three decades of aquatic macroinvertebrate monitoring programs in a Neotropical floodplain

“…Research related to conservation and environmental monitoring generates better insights when using taxonomic resolution at the genus or species levels (Lenat & Resh, 2001). Furthermore, for some groups such as Chironomidae, a more accurate taxonomic resolution is indicated for many applications in ecological research (Vasquez et al, 2022), to indicate phylogenetic structure (Baranov et al, 2021), and for the status Acta Limnologica Brasiliensia, 2022, vol. 34, e10…”

Profiling Analysis of Filter Feeder Polypedilum (Chironomidae) Gut Contents Using eDNA Metabarcoding Following Contrasting Habitat Types—Weir and Stream

“…The larvae of chironomid are important constituents in freshwater systems [ 1 ]. As Vasquez et al (2022) [ 2 ] mentioned, chironomids are the biological indicators of aquatic health, the prevalence of ecological organization, functions, and systematics. Chironomids are sensitive to extreme conditions and their presence represents quality factors of the environment [ 3 ].…”