Diversity of trichomycetes in larval flies from aquatic habitats in Argentina

Abstract

Trichomycetes, mainly from nonbiting midge (Chironomidae), mosquito (Culicidae) and black fly (Simuliidae) larvae (Insecta: Diptera), are reported from diverse freshwater environments principally from previously unexplored areas of Argentina. Four new species of Harpellales are described: Austrosmittium patagonicum, A. lenticum, Smittium basiramosum and Legeriomyces lichtwardtii. This is the first report of Austrosmittium spp. from the Americas and the first report of a Legeriomyces from South America. Two other species (Simuliomyces sp. and Harpella sp.) are described but not named. Fourteen previously described species were recovered, and their geographical distribution and host ranges have been extended for Argentina, with Sm. phytotelmatum, Stachylina lentica, St. lotica and St. penetralis being new records for the country.

• Diptera
• endosymbiotic fungi
• Harpellales
• Kickxellomycotina
• macroinvertebrates

The authors thank Dra Analía Paggi (Instituto de Limnología Dr Raúl A. Ringuelet, ILPLA) for chironomid identifications, Prof Gustavo Rossi (Centro de Estudios Parasitológicos y de Vectores, CEPAVE) for mosquito identifications, Dr Sixto Coscarón (Museo de Ciencias Naturales de La Plata) and Dra Neusa Hamada (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Departamento de Entomología, INPA/CPEN, Manaos, Brasil) for simuliid identifications, Dr Michael Hubbard (Florida A&M University, Tallahassee) for ephemeropteran identification, Patricia Eckel (Missouri Botanical Garden) for the Latin translation of the diagnoses of the new species, Lic. Luis Giambelluca for providing some insect samples from field collections. The National Research Council of Argentina (CONICET) is acknowledged by the senior author for providing financial support through a doctoral fellowship, and Prof Emeritus Dr Robert W. Lichtwardt is gratefully acknowledged for his important suggestions and corrections to the manuscript, as well as two anonymous reviewers for valuable comments.