Cricotopus ( Paratrichocladius ) skirwithensis (Edwards, 1929)

Cricotopus ( Paratrichocladius) skirwithensis (Edwards, 1929) View in CoL

Spaniotoma ( Trichocladius) skirwithensis Edwards, 1929: 329 View in CoL .

Orthocladius nigritus Goetghebuer, 1938: 459 View in CoL not Orthocladius nigritus Malloch, 1915: 525 View in CoL , syn. nov. (permanently invalid as junior primary homonym).

? Paratrichocladius nigritus (Goetghebuer) : LANGTON & VISSER (2003), pupal exuviae.

? Paratrichocladius nigritus (Goetghebuer) : LANGTON & PINDER (2007), adult male.

Paratrichocladius spiesi Ashe & O’Connor, 2012: 492 , syn. nov. (replacement name for Orthocladius nigritus Goetghebuer, 1938 View in CoL ).

Type material examined. Orthocladius nigritus : HOLOTYPE: ♁ stored in isinglass, now mounted on slide, labelled

‘ Orthocladius nigritus n. sp. // type ♁ / M. Goetghebuer // locality Basse Autriche 1938, t 23°// R.I.SC.N.B. 18.073

/ Coll. et det. M. Goetghebuer’.

Comments. The specimen fits well with C. ( P.) skirwithensis (Edwards, 1929) ; therefore, we propose to synonymize O. nigritus Goetghebuer, 1938 (not Malloch, 1915) with C. ( P.) skirwithensis . Consequently, its replacement name P. spiesi Ashe & O’Connor, 2012 also becomes a junior synonym of C. ( P.) skirwithensis . LANGTON & VISSER (2003) and LANGTON & PINDER (2007) separated the respective pupae and adult male of Paratrichocladius nigritus (Goetghebuer) and of P. skirwithensis (Edwards) . Unfortunately, the delimitation of species within the subgenus Paratrichocladius is still controversial, many species are probably present, but morphological evidence should be supported by DNA sequences, because of intraspecific variability ( CRANSTON & KROSCH 2015, MONTAGNA et al. 2016). The small differences described in pupal exuviae ( LANGTON & VISSER 2003) do not justify the separation of two species, and this is supported by the examination of the adult male of O. nigritus , which cannot be separated from C. ( P.) skirwithensis . It is thus not recommended to increase species names and the present decision of synonymizing O. nigritus sensu Goetghebuer with C. ( P.) skirwithensis results in the synonymy of P. spiesi with C. ( P.) skirwithensis .