A phylogeny of the Tanypodinae (Diptera: Chironomidae)

The Tanypodinae occur the world over (excepting Antarctica) in almost all types of freshwater habitats, and are the third most speciose subfamily in the Chironomidae. There is dramatic variation in pollution tolerances within the subfamily, making them of considerable utility in water quality monitoring. Identification of subfossil head capsules, coupled with knowledge of pollution tolerance across the subfamily, has allowed for climate reconstruction tens of thousands of years into the past. Despite their ubiquity, usefulness, and unusual life history, (almost all species of Chironomid midges with predatory larvae are in the Tanypodinae) and aside from a few tribal level phenograms, a formal phylogeny of the subfamily has never been constructed. Insects collected from across California, and supplemented by material from the Florida Everglades, South America, Australia and Europe, were used to create a phylogeny of all major known lineages of Tanypodinae, including each of eight tribes. A molecular dataset including one mitochondrial and three nuclear loci was generated, and then analyzed using maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference methods. Such a phylogeny will provide insight into biogeography as well as the evolutionary history of the group, and the evolutionary patterns of important water quality traits, such as the expression of respiratory pigments.