AfrotropicalPolypedilumsubgenusTripodura, with a review of the subgenus (Diptera: Chironomidae)

Vårdal, H., Bjørlo, A. & Sæther, O. A. (2002). AfrotropicalPolypedilumsubgenusTripodura, with a review of the subgenus (Diptera: Chironomidae). —Zoologica Scripta, 31,331–402. A subgeneric diagnosis for all stages of the subgenusTripoduraTownes,1945 of the genusPolypedilumKieffer,1912 is given. Nine new Afrotropical species ofTripoduraare described:P.(T.)chelumVårdal sp. n.,P.(T.)amplificatusBjørlo sp. n.,P.(T.)patulumBjørlo sp. n.,P.(T.)spinalveumVårdal sp. n.,P.(T.)eweiBjørlo sp. n.,P.(T.)ogoouenseBjørlo sp. n.,P.(T.)akaniBjørlo sp. n.,P.(T.)dagombaeBjørlo sp. n., andP.(T.)amputatumBjørlo sp. n.; all as male imagines only.P.(T.)alboguttatumKieffer,P.(T.)albosignatumKieffer,P.(T.)tropicumKieffer,P.(T.)pruinaFreeman,P.(T.)quinqueguttatumKieffer,P.(T.) aegyptiumKieffer,P.(T.) tridensFreeman,P.(T.)allansoniFreeman,P.(T.)longicrusKieffer,P.(T.)annulatipesKieffer andP.(T.)abyssiniaeKieffer are re‐described as male and female imagines, whileP.(T.)majiisLehmann,P.(T.)subovatumFreeman,P.(T.)griseoguttatumKieffer,P.(T.)aferumLehmann andP.(T.)kijabenseFreeman are re‐described as male imagines only. Keys to the male and the known female imagines of the 30 Afrotropical species in the subgenus are presented. A phylogenetic analysis based on all available information onTripodurafrom all over the world (135 species) is presented and discussed. The monophyly of the subgenusTripodurais confirmed. The subgenus can be divided into 20 groups with theacifergroup forming the sister group of two larger assemblages of groups in the orderacifer(titicacae(ginzansecundum((aferum(ewei(malickianum(floridense(halterale,pullum)))))) (subovatum(labeculosum((parascalaenum(allansoni(apfelbecki(udominatum,parvum))))) ((((alboguttatum,aegyptium)quinqueguttatum)annulatipes)). Only in thetiticacae,halterale,pullumandapfelbeckigroups are the larvae of more than one species described, while one larva is known in each of thesubovatum,parascalaenum,aegyptiumandquinqueguttatumgroups. Three or more pupae are known only from thehalterale,pullum,apfelbeckiandaegyptiumgroups. Thus, the tentative nature of the group divisions is obvious. Geographical co‐evolutionary analyses (Brooks parsimony analyses) of the subgenus as a whole and of the major groups are performed and the areas most likely to be part of the original areas estimated. Most probably, eastern South America and Africa were part of the ancestral area. There are multiple sister‐group relationships and generalized tracks between South and East Asia and Africa, between Africa and the Palaearctic region, between South and East Asia, between tropical Brazil and Africa, between East Asia and North America across a former Beringian land bridge, and between the Indo‐West Pacific region and New Zealand, but no evidence for transantarctic relationships.