Einfeldia Kieffer

Cranston, Peter S., Martin, Jon, Mulder, Monica & Spies, Martin, 2016, Clarification of Einfeldia Kieffer, 1922 (Diptera: Chironomidae) with E. australiensis (Freeman, 1961), comb. n. based on immature stages, Zootaxa 4158 (4), pp. 491-506 : 492-493

Einfeldia Kieffer

Einfeldia Kieffer, 1924:393 - Kieffer (1924), adult male and female.

“ Einfeldia species group A”— Pinder & Reiss (1983), larva; (1986), pupa.

Einfeldia Kieffer—Cranston et al. (1989) , adult male; Epler et al. (2013) partim, larva. 'so-called Einfeldia ' pagana -group—Yamamoto et al. (2015), adult male, larva.

Typification. Application of the name Einfeldia Kieffer has undergone several significant changes. The reasons for this include that none of Kieffer's adult syntypes for the type species, E. pectoralis Kieffer, 1924 , has ever been seen or found again by anyone else, and that no other name-bearing type specimen was recognised or designated. Moreover, the type series possibly was mixed; see Discussion below. Therefore, the following lectotype fixation is made to promote nomenclatural stability and facilitate taxonomic diagnostics.

Lectotype here designated for ' Einfeldia pectoralis ' (original label on the slide) Kieffer, 1924; in coll. SNSB – Zoologische Staatssammlung München ( Germany): ♂ pupal exuviae, slide-mounted in Euparal (F. Reiss) ; GERMANY, Schleswig-Holstein, Großer Waterneverstorfer Binnensee , reared from sample 'W.S.Z. bei 6' (original label on slide) taken at 1.5–2.5 m depth, 19.vi.1923, leg. F. Lenz .

There is 'firm evidence' that the pupal exuviae designated above is 'biologically and for the purposes of nomenclature' ( ICZN 1980) part of one of the syntypes of E. pectoralis that Kieffer (1924) had described as adults from Lenz's rearings (see Lenz 1937). In the voluminous correspondence on such cases between A. Thienemann / F. Lenz and J.J. Kieffer that is preserved at ZSM (see, e.g., Spies 2001) there is one letter, dated ' 27.ix.1923 ' by Thienemann, that includes an identification request for a sample 'W.S.Z. bei 6' (in Lenz's handwriting); the latter sample code appears nowhere else in the correspondence. When Kieffer returned that letter, he had entered his identification results for that particular sample as ' Fleuria lacustris ♂♀ Viele Exemplare' [many specimens] and ' Einfeldia pectoralis n.sp. 1 ♂'. Chironomid material at ZSM labelled with Lenz's sample code 'W.S.Z. bei 6' includes only specimens under these two names from Kieffer, and no specimen under the name Einfeldia pectoralis other than the single ♂ exuviae here designated as lectotype. The adult males and pupae of the two species are so different that life-stage misassociation can be ruled out in this case. Therefore, the single exuviae labelled ' Einfeldia pectoralis ' is recognisable beyond reasonable doubt as part of one of Kieffer's syntypes in accordance with ICZN (1980) Opinion 1147. Consequently, this exuviae is eligible for lectotype fixation.

On the letter sheet mentioned above, Kieffer recorded Einfeldia pectoralis in two more of Lenz's original sample rearings ('W.S.Z. 10–11a', 'W.S.Z. 10–11b'), also from Waterneverstorfer Binnensee. Three ♂ exuviae at ZSM (1 slide-mounted by Lenz, the others on another slide by Reiss) apparently belong to these samples. However, Kieffer's letter entries recorded the respective specimens as ' ♂ ♀ ' and ' 1♂ 1♀ ', and the sample code on the slide labels is 'W.S.Z. 10–11' without a subsample letter a or b. Thus, these 3 exuviae cannot be ascribed type status, as the individual life-stage association required ( ICZN 1980) is impossible. Similarly, the few specimens at ZSM of larvae assigned to E. pectoralis by Lenz (1937, 1954 in 1954 –1962) are not associable with the certainty that would be necessary to interpret them as parts of original type specimens.