Karelia Roback

Niitsuma, Hiromi, 2013, Revision of the Japanese Ablabesmyia (Diptera: Chironomidae: Tanypodinae), with descriptions of three new species, Zootaxa 3664 (4), pp. 479-504 : 496

Subgenus Karelia Roback

Karelia Roback, 1971: 357 ; 1985: 169. Type species: Tanypus illinoensis Malloch , by original designation.

Remarks. The subgeneric diagnosis is given by Roback (1971, 1985).

The male of a new species found in Japan keys to Karelia in Murray & Fittkau (1989), and the larva also keys to the subgenus in Oliveira et al. (2008). However, the pupa keys out to Ablabesmyia s. str. because of the clubshaped apex of the aeropyle tube and the weak reticulation of the thoracic horn. In the subgeneric diagnosis for the male, Roback (1985:169) noted, “LL of aedeagus absent”, but males of three new species including the previous, described here, have a prominent lateral lobe in the aedeagal complex. Therefore, features of the lateral lobe in the adult, and of the aeropyle tube and the horn sac reticulation in the pupa may be insignificant for the definition of this subgenus.

Generally, the males of Karelia differ from those of other subgenera in the combination of the foretibia with a median band at or near central position; dark macula in middle of cell r4+5 distad to spot in middle of cell m1+2, and the gonostylus with an acute megaseta. The larvae are distinct from those of other subgenera in the combination of the maxillary palp with a basal segment subdivided into two parts, the ligula with a distinctly concave toothed margin, and the procercus with seven apical setae (Oliveira et al. 2008).