Abstract
Chironomus calligraphus Goeldi, 1905 has a flexible life cycle with several generations per year, which can be modified by the quality and type of food. To categorize the functional feeding group of the species, food preference was evaluated in larval instars III and IV, through laboratory experiments and gut content analysis. To evaluate the influence of the type of food on the duration of the life cycle growth and maturation, experiments were carried out. Instar III preferred conditioned leaves and animal food, while instar IV preferred algae and fine particulate organic matter. Gut contents of instar IV collected from streams showed increased consumption of fine particulate organic matter than other items. All these observations allowed us to assign the species to the gatherer collector group. The duration of the life cycle varied between the different types of foods, being the conditioned leaves, animal food, and algae the items that caused a greater growth in the larvae and a faster passage to the pupal instar. Our results suggest that the opportunistic feeding behavior of C. calligraphus allows it to use several different foods, but the quality of the foods influences the length of the life cycle and this contributes to its plasticity.
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Data Availability
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We sincerely acknowledge Mariano Donato for collaborating in the morphological identification of the organisms. We thank Agustina Fañani for enthusiastic help in the laboratory.
Funding
This work was funded by Departamento de Ciencias Básicas, Universidad Nacional de Luján (Project DISPCD-CBLUJ: 201–19), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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Conceptualization: Bárbara Pamela Banegas, Luciana Rocha; methodology: Bárbara Pamela Banegas, Luciana Rocha; preparation of figures and tables: Bárbara Pamela Banegas; formal analysis and investigation: Luciana Rocha, Bárbara Pamela Banegas; writing—original draft preparation: Bárbara Pamela Banegas, Luciana Rocha; writing—review and editing: Bárbara Pamela Banegas, Luciana Rocha.
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Banegas, B.P., Rocha, L. Chironomus calligraphus Goeldi, 1905 (Diptera: Chironomidae) Larvae: Feeding Habits, Growth, and Maturation. Neotrop Entomol 52, 431–441 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13744-023-01029-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13744-023-01029-1