Simulium (Nevermannia)

Crosskey, Roger W. & Crosskey, Margaret E., 2000, An investigation of the black ¯ y fauna of Andalusia, southern Spain (Diptera: Simuliidae), Journal of Natural History 34 (6), pp. 895-951 : 924-925

15. Simulium (Nevermannia) sp. near cryophilum (Rubtsov)

Spain references: no previous reference.

Andalusia records

Authors’ material. Site 56: 9 pupae (including one pharate adult l), 2 larvae (both`gill-spot’, one mature pharate pupa).

Remarks

Under this heading we include a few specimens of the S. vernum species-group that are very similar to S. cryophilum but which we believe probably represent a closely allied species. These immatures were collected from the RõÂo Laroles near Cherin village in the eastern Alpujarras ( Granada Province) and no other member of the vernum -group was present in the sample. The pupae have very long simple trichomes and smoothly discoid microtubercles as in S. cryophilum but the pupal gill structure diOEers: the base of the upper pair of ®laments is distinctly swollen (®gure 27), these ®laments lie almost side by side rather than obliquely, the common stalk of the lower pair of ®laments is very short, the pro®le outline of the ®laments is more strongly corrugated, and the extreme base of the gill is less strongly orange-coloured.

Examination of a pharate pupal gill from one of the larvae, after its removal and uncoiling by immersion in caustic potash, con®rmed that the larvae are conspeci®c with the pupae in the sample. The larvae are outwardly very like those of S. cryophilum but in the two specimens seen the base of the pharate pupal gill is pale dingy yellow (usually more orange in cryophilum ) and the head capsule is more heavily pigmented; the postgenal cleft has the same form as in cryophilum , small and pentagonal.

It appears possible but unlikely that the RõÂo Laroles specimens are S. toubkal , a vernum -group species described by Bouzidi and Giudicelli (1986) from the High Atlas of Morocco. There are resemblances in the simple trichomes and smoothly rounded microtubercles but in toubkal the very dark ®laments lie in an even tighter fascicle and are sessile, arising independently from a much thickened gill base. The gill of the RõÂo Laroles pupae is more or less intermediate in basal con®guration between the gills of S. cryophilum and S. toubkal , since there is no de®nite common stalk to the upper pair of ®laments and a very short common stalk to the lower pair and an intermediate degree of basal thickening. The genitalia from the RõÂo Laroles pharate adult male are very like those illustrated by Bouzidi and Giudicelli for S. toubkal , notably in the very wide ventral plate and its very broad subquadrate pro®le.