Clogmia albipunctata

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Clogmia albipunctata
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Clogmia albipunctata

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Fly (Diptera)
Family : Butterfly mosquitoes (Psychodidae)
Subfamily : Psychodinae
Genre : Clogmia
Type : Clogmia albipunctata
Scientific name
Clogmia albipunctata
( Williston , 1893)

Clogmia albipunctata , together with some related species known as " abortion fly ", is a species from the family of the butterfly mosquito (Psychodidae). The larvae of the cosmopolitan mosquito species live on decomposing organic matter in, mostly polluted, water of all kinds. In Central Europe it occurs synanthropically in houses, within the sewer pipes, where the larvae graze on the biofilm that forms on the inside of the pipe wall. The species is generally considered to be a harmless annoyance in the household, but can cause hygienic problems in hospitals by spreading germs. The species was previously restricted to the tropics and subtropics, it has been expanding its area to the north for a few years.

description

Imago

Clogmia albipunctata reaches a body length of 4 to 5 millimeters and a wingspan of 6 millimeters, making it a small insect, but one of the large species within the family. The trunk and abdomen are colored gray-brown. The wings are tinted brown by quite dense scales, with two dark (or black and white) spots near the base of the wing and a series of eight to nine small white spots along the wing edge, at the ends of the longitudinal veins. In addition, there is a V-shaped white markings in the middle of the wing.

The species has the typical body shape of the butterfly mosquito: a compactly built, short-legged mosquito, densely haired with slightly breaking, protruding scale hair and thus reminiscent of a small butterfly ("moth"). The species is a rather clumsy, bad flier. In the resting position, the wings are either spread flat or laid like a roof over the abdomen. The long, thread-like antennae are noticeably hairy on each segment with a long whisker. The kidney-shaped complex eyes are connected to one another on the vertex by a bridge-shaped band of four rows of ommatidia, ocelles are missing. The eyes are adapted to darkness and are very bright, but only allow a low spatial resolution. The long wings are lanceolate-oval and pointed. The wing veins are characterized by ten parallel longitudinal veins up to the edge of the wing, transverse veins are inconspicuous and limited to the basal part of the wing. In Central Europe, the species can be identified in its habitat on the basis of size, color and drawing and can be assigned using photos. For a reliable determination, however, microscopic features are to be used: The palps are long (half as long as the antennae) and four-segment. The antenna is constricted in that the antenna elements each have a narrow, hairless end piece towards the tip. In males they each have a pair of sensory cones called ascoids, each consisting of two parallel arms of equal length (U-shaped to V-shaped), in females these are simply finger-shaped. In addition to the branching of the wing veins (among other things: the R5 vein ends in the wing tip, transverse veins rr and rm formed and clear, also the position of the bifurcations of the radial and median veins) is also the shape of the male genital appendages and the shape of the subgenital plate of the females specific.

larva

The larvae of Clogmia albipunctata have the typical shape of a butterfly mosquito larva. The larva is elongated, predominantly white in color, with a darker, small head capsule at the front and a short, sclerotized breathing tube (siphon) at the rear end. False feet are not developed. The body is segmented (three trunk and seven free abdominal segments) and also divided into fine rings (annuli), which simulates a higher number of segments. Each ring has a bristle, dark-colored, transverse, sclerotized plate ( tergite ) on the top . Apart from this, the body is covered by very short, pointed thorns. The stigmas of the respiratory system are amphipneus, that is, there is an open stigma in the front of the first trunk segment and a second, slit-shaped one at the end of the abdomen. The front stigmas are presumably rudimentary and have no function. The rear spiracles are surrounded by a wreath of hair that repels water, through which the aquatic larvae breathe air. The larva can only be distinguished from related species by specialists, especially on the basis of its bristling ( chaetotaxia ). The following is also typical of the species: the mouth (hypostome), which covers the sunken mouth parts, has three sharp teeth on the front edge.

distribution

The species is distributed almost worldwide, although it is believed that this distribution goes back to human displacement. Their actual home is unknown. For a long time, the 42nd degree of latitude was considered to be the northern limit of the distribution, so it was only common in Europe in the Mediterranean area. For some time now, however, evidence has been increasing north of it, including in Central Europe, where the species occurs almost exclusively synanthropically , in heated buildings or other habitats that are favored by warmth, in close proximity to humans. The first evidence in a wastewater plant in Berlin dates back to 1993. However, the species only became more common in the 2000s, for example in 2007 in Brussels, Belgium, in 2008 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and from 2010 in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Biology and way of life

In warmer climates of the tropics and subtropics, the species occurs in the wild, like many related species, for example, in water-filled hollows in tree trunks ( phytotelmas ). Typical are small bodies of water or damp, soft substrates in which the larva uses its mandibles to scrape the organic biofilm, which consists mainly of bacteria, from surfaces for food. Since the larva breathes air, it is dependent on shallow, mostly organically highly polluted water. In the warm, nutrient-rich waters, development is very rapid, from egg to adult in about 17 days. The flying adults live for about 10 days.

From there it has passed into water-filled small habitats in human-made habitats and, as a synanthropic species, has been transported to corresponding habitats almost worldwide. In Central Europe, the species is characteristic of sewer pipes inside buildings in which the larvae live permanently. Mosquitoes can penetrate into inhabited rooms from there and become quite annoying there when they become more frequent. Most mosquitoes live permanently in the sewer pipes and do not leave them. Since 2012, the first evidence has been found in tree hollows in the open air in the Czech Republic. But it seems unlikely that they can live there permanently and hibernate there. The species shares its synanthropic habitat in Central Europe with other species of butterfly mosquitoes that have been around for a long time, such as Tinearia alternata and Psychoda species.

In Central Europe, the species typically occurs in fairly high numbers from the beginning in the newly developed habitats. In suitable habitats it can displace other species of butterfly mosquito. The danger in Central Europe is estimated to be low, as it is probably not hardy here in the open air.

Importance to humans

The species is now widespread in households, but does not cause any damage there. In hospitals in particular, however, it can cause serious hygienic problems by spreading germs from the sewer system to patients. In Germany, it is now widespread in hospitals, for example in showers and less frequently used toilets. The species is feared as a vector of the multi-resistant hospital germ Acinetobacter baumannii , which can also develop biofilms in sewer pipes.

Taxonomy and systematics

The species was first described in 1893 by Samuel Wendell Williston , as Psychoda albipunctata . According to the traditional view, the genus Clogmia comprises around 30 species in all parts of the world except Antarctica. According to a narrower view, only three species remain in the genus, besides Clogmia albipunctata also Clogmia bulbula (Quate, 1965) from the Philippines and Clogmia bidentata Ježek, 2004 from Madagascar. Clogmia albipunctata is the type species of the genus Clogmia , Enderlein 1937. For a long time, the genus was regarded as synonymous with the genus Telmatoscopus , so that the species is listed in older literature under the name Telmatoscopus albipunctatus .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ William H. Robinson: Urban Insects and Arachnids: A Handbook of Urban Entomology. Cambridge University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-521-81253-4 , p. 182.
  2. ↑ a b c d L. Boumans, J.-Y. Zimmer, F. Verheggen First Records of the 'bathroom fly' Clogmia albipunctata (Diptera, Psychodidae), a conspicuous element of the Belgian fauna that went unnoticed (Diptera: Psychodidae). Phegea 37 (4): 153-160.
  3. ↑ Lei-Po Jia & Ai-Ping Liang (2017): An apposition compound eye adapted for nocturnal vision in the moth midge Clogmia albipunctata (Williston) (Diptera: Psychodidae). Journal of Insect Physiology 98: 188-198. doi: 10.1016 / j.jinsphys.2017.01.006
  4. ↑ a b Jozef Oboňa & Jan Ježek (2012): Range Expansion of the Invasive Moth Midge Clogmia albipunctata (Williston, 1893) in Slovakia (Diptera: Psychodidae). Folia faunistica Slovaca 17 (4): 387-391.
  5. ↑ Sergio Ibáñez-Bernal (2008): New Records and Descriptions of Mexican Moth Flies (Diptera: Psychodidae, Psychodinae). Transactions of the American Entomological Society 134 (1/2): 87-131.
  6. ↑ a b Gunnar M. Kvifte & Rüdiger Wagner (2017): Psychodidae (Sand Flies, Moth Flies, Owl Flies). Chapter 24 in: AH Kirk-Spriggs & BJ Sinclair (Editors): Manual of Afrotropical Diptera. Volume 2. Nematocerous Diptera and lower Brachycera. Suricata 5: 607-632.
  7. ↑ a b Jan Ježek & Antonius van Harten (2009): Order Diptera, Family Psychodidae, Subfamily Psychodinae (non-biting moth flies). Arthropod fauna of the UAE United Arabian Emirates 2: 686-711.
  8. ↑ L. Boumans (2009): De wc-motmug Clogmia albipunctata, een opvallend maar onopgemänke element van onze fauna (Diptera: Psychodidae). Nederlandse Faunistische Mededelingen 30: 1-10.
  9. ↑ Hana Šuláková, František Gregor, Jan Jezek, Michal Tkoč (2014): Nová Invaze do našich obcí a měst: koutule Clogmia albipunctata a problem atlantic myiáz. živa 1/2014: 29-32.
  10. ↑ Gunnar M. Kvifte, Marija Ivkovič, Aleksandra Klarič (2013): New records of moth flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) from Croatia, with the description of Berdeniella keroveci sp.nov. Zootaxa 3737 (1): 57-67. doi: 10.11646 / zootaxa.3737.1.4
  11. ↑ M.Faulde, M.Spiesberger (2012): Hospital infestations by the moth fly, Clogmia albipunctata (Diptera: Psychodinae), in Germany. Journal of Hospital Infection 81 (2): 134-136. doi: 10.1016 / j.jhin.2012.04.006
  12. ^ Dangerous butterfly mosquitoes: carriers of pathogens in hospitals Deutsche Apothekerzeitung online (No. 22, 2018), May 31, 2018.

Web links

Commons : Clogmia albipunctata  - collection of images, videos and audio files