Metacnephia nigra (Rubtsov, 1940)

Sirin, Uemit Davut, Caliskan, Hakan & Sahin, Yalcin, 2015, Black flies (Diptera: Simuliidae) of Turkish Thrace, with a new record for Turkey, Biodiversity Data Journal 3, pp. 4834-4834 : 4834

Metacnephia nigra (Rubtsov, 1940)

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: lifeStage: 1 pupae; Taxon: scientificName: Metacnephianigra (Rubtsov, 1940); kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Diptera; family: Simuliidae; genus: Metacnephia; scientificNameAuthorship: (Rubtsov, 1940); Location: continent: Europe; country: Turkey; stateProvince: Kırklareli; county: Demirköy; locationRemarks: 35; verbatimLatitude: 41°52'21.65"N; verbatimLongitude: 27°54'3.96"E; Identification: identificationID: esoguent-th-ıd- 11; Event: eventDate: 04/22/2005 Type status: Other material. Occurrence: lifeStage: 12 pupae, 2 larvae; Taxon: scientificName: Metacnephianigra (Rubtsov, 1940); kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Diptera; family: Simuliidae; genus: Metacnephia; scientificNameAuthorship: (Rubtsov, 1940); Location: continent: Europe; country: Turkey; stateProvince: Kırklareli; county: İğneada; locationRemarks: 36; verbatimLatitude: 41°49'16.69"N; verbatimLongitude: 27°57'8.53"E; Identification: identificationID: esoguent-th-ıd- 12; Event: eventDate: 04/22/2005 Type status: Other material. Occurrence: lifeStage: 2 pupae; Taxon: scientificName: Metacnephianigra (Rubtsov, 1940); kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Diptera; family: Simuliidae; genus: Metacnephia; scientificNameAuthorship: (Rubtsov, 1940); Location: continent: Europe; country: Turkey; stateProvince: Kırklareli; county: Merkez; locationRemarks: 46; verbatimLatitude: 41°49'48.43"N; verbatimLongitude: 27°10'42.01"E; Identification: identificationID: esoguent-th-ıd- 13; Event: eventDate: 04/23/2005 Type status: Other material. Occurrence: lifeStage: 5 pupae; Taxon: scientificName: Metacnephianigra (Rubtsov, 1940); kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Diptera; family: Simuliidae; genus: Metacnephia; scientificNameAuthorship: (Rubtsov, 1940); Location: continent: Europe; country: Turkey; stateProvince: Edirne; county: Lalapaşa; locationRemarks: 53; verbatimLatitude: 41°58'26.47"N; verbatimLongitude: 27°0'28.78"E; Identification: identificationID: esoguent-th-ıd- 14; Event: eventDate: 04/23/2005 Type status: Other material. Occurrence: lifeStage: 1 pupae; Taxon: scientificName: Metacnephianigra (Rubtsov, 1940); kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Diptera; family: Simuliidae; genus: Metacnephia; scientificNameAuthorship: (Rubtsov, 1940); Location: continent: Europe; country: Turkey; stateProvince: Edirne; county: Lalapaşa; locationRemarks: 128; verbatimLatitude: 41°50'8.01"N; verbatimLongitude: 26°43'49.22"E; Identification: identificationID: esoguent-th-ıd- 15; Event: eventDate: 04/23/2005

Notes

We report this species for the first time from Turkey. The taxonomy of the genus Metacnephia requires revision. In Turkey, only two species, M. lyra and M. subalpina , of this genus have been known until now ( Kazancı and Ertunç 2008). The pupal features of our specimens are similar to those of M. subalpina , reported from four localities in Anatolia, one in the northwestern and three in the eastern and southeastern parts of the country, by Crosskey and Zwick (2007). Metacnephia subalpina was described by Rubtsov (1956) as a variety of M. nigra , but Terteryan (1968) elevated it to species. According to Crosskey and Zwick (2007), the relationship of M. subalpina and M. nigra remains unsettled because of the problem of the true identity of M. nigra ; the authors could not resolve the ambiguities. They noted that Yankovsky (1995) (pp. 4, 50) treated subalpina and nigra as synonyms before reverting [ Yankovsky (2003)] to treating them as separate species. Crosskey and Zwick (2007) used the name subalpina for their material because it conformed in the shape of the ventral plate and pupal gill with Djafarov’s illustrations of M. subalpina . Another species, Metacnephia uzunovi , described by Kovachev (1985) from Bulgaria, confuses the taxonomic situation by having similar structural characters to M. nigra . We have doubts about its validity. We recognize M. nigra as a species complex, following the recommendation of P.H. Adler (pers. comm.) who noted the similarity with Rubtsov’s (1956, fig. 113) variety, saxicola, of M. nigra . Adler suggested that we use the name M. nigra for our material, with reference to Rubtsov’s (1956) variety saxicola, as a conservative approach that will provide future workers with an idea of the morphology of our material until the correct name of the species can be determined. M. nigra is known from Azerbaijan (Nakhichevan), Romania, Russia (Caucasus) and Turkmenistan ( Adler and Crosskey 2015).