Morphotaxonomy of the Simulium (Simulium) tuberosum species group (Diptera: Simuliidae) in Thailand
Author
Tangkawanit, Ubon
Author
Kuvangkadilok, Chaliow
Author
Baimai, Visut
Author
Adler, Peter H.
text
Zootaxa
2009
2048
31
46
journal article
10.5281/zenodo.186496
a6aa7826-075e-4c7e-a095-ea3a3cd23017
1175-5326
186496
Simulium weji
Takaoka, 2001
Simulium weji
differs from other species in the
Thai
tuberosum
group by having pupae with microtubercles on the antennal sheath, conical cephalic microtubercles (
Fig. 4
D), gill filaments decreasing in length from dorsal to ventral, the dorsal filament thicker than the others, and the upper pair on a short stalk but the middle and lower pairs almost sessile (
Fig. 7
G). In the female, sternite VII has a pair of long clusters of hairs. In the male, the median sclerite is somewhat teardrop shaped (
Fig. 9
E) and the head is slightly wider than the thorax. Meristic characters of the larvae (e.g., number of primary fan rays, lobules on the rectal papilla, hooklet rows, and hooklets per row) are greater than those of all other
Thai
members of the
S. tuberosum
group (Table 2) and might be related to the unique calcareous stream habitat of
S. weji
. The cocoons of this species accumulate a deposit of calcium carbonate.