Revision of the Ketaketa subcomplex of blackflies of the Simulium damnosum complex

Abstract

A revision of the taxonomy of the Ketaketa subcomplex of the Simulium damnosum Theobald complex (Diptera: Simuliidae) is presented including new material from Tanzania, Malawi and South Africa. The cytotaxonomy, morphology and molecular identity of known and new taxa are described. The Ketaketa subcomplex is cytotaxonomically defined by the paracentric inversion 1L-7. We recognize three sibling species, namely Simulium latipollex (Enderlein), Simulium plumbeum Krueger, sp.n. and Simulium kipengere Krueger, sp.n., the latter comprising three cytoforms: 'Typical', 'Linthipe' and 'Mombo'. The cytoforms 'Mwamphanzi', 'Ketaketa' and 'Hammerkopi' are synonymized with S. plumbeum. Identification keys are provided on the basis of chromosomal and morphological characters. In view of their potential role as vectors of human onchocerciasis (river blindness) we also discuss the possible medical importance of the different cytoforms and their geographical distribution.

Esperanza Window Traps for the collection of anthropophilic blackflies (Diptera: Simuliidae) in Uganda and Tanzania

“…[35]. The cytoforms present in Mahenge are ‘Nkusi’, Simulium plumbeum (= ‘Hammerkopi’ and ‘Ketaketa’), ‘Sebwe’ and ‘Turiani’ [35, 54, 55]. ‘Nkusi’ is thought to be the predominant anthropophilic species, and S .…”

Descriptions of members of theSimulium damnosumcomplex (Diptera: Simuliidae) from southern Africa, Ethiopia and Tanzania

“…The chromosome spreads were prepared as described by Krü ger (2003). The analysis of the chromosomal banding patterns was carried out using reference maps (Dunbar, 1969;Vajime and Dunbar, 1977;Procunier and Muro, 1993;Cupp, 1993, 1994;Krü ger et al, 2004Krü ger et al, , 2005Mustapha et al, 2004;Krü ger, 2005) and specimens representing the chromosomal standard (S. kilibanum, Uganda) or relatives [S. mengense from Cameroon, kindly provided by M. Mustapha, and S. pandanophilum from Uganda (Krü ger et al, 1998)]. …”

“…The analysis revealed that there were three geographical isolates [excluding the cytotype, described, as the 'Olifants' form within the 'Ketaketa' subcomplex, by Krü ger et al (2005)], all of which closely resemble the S. damnosum cytoform 'Nkusi', which is otherwise known only from East Africa. Characteristically, the three isolates, here named the 'Nkusi SA', 'Nkusi SW' and 'Pienaars' forms, all share the fixed inversion ] and standard sequences on the 1S, 1L, 2S and 3S chromosome arms.…”

“…There is unpublished evidence for the existence of three different cytological segregates from South Africa and one from Swaziland, albeit without correlation with other members of the complex (Crosskey, 1987). Another new cytoform has been described recently by Krü ger et al (2005).…”

Seasonal and Spatial Distributions of Black Fly Larvae (Diptera: Simuliidae) in Two Lake Outlet Streams of the Mauricie Region of Québec, and Species Survey in Parts of Southern Québec Territory

“…Use of cytotaxonomy does permit some species to be recognized as members of a complex (Table 4), but can require a large number of specimens in order to yield interpretable material (Spironello et al 2002) depending upon environmental conditions; e.g., only 1 in 10 larvae could display a proper chromosome spread on a slide (Spironello et al 2002). Moreover, inappropriate larval storage at high temperature may lead to poor results, due to chromosome morphology alteration, and inexperienced staff could misidentify larvae; some chromosomal inversions have been misidentied in the subcomplex Ketaketa of Simulium damnosum Theobald (Krueger et al 2006). Furthermore, cytotaxonomy can only be applied to late larval instars (Xiong and Kocher 1991) and does not allow adult female black y identi cation, which is quite important for epidemiological studies (Krüger et al 2000).…”