Discrimination of orthocladiinae species (Diptera: Chironomidae) by using cytochrome c oxidase subunit i

Chironomidae family (Diptera) is more than 120 million years old and has undergone extensive adaptive radiation to occupy a wider range of microhabitats than any other aquatic insect group at present. Chironomidae are often the most abundant group of insects in freshwater environments worldwide. It includes over 10 000 species, distributed from the tropics to the Arctic in lakes, streams and puddles. Unfortunately, the larval stage of Chironomidae, commonly collected in aquatic sampling surveys, possesses relatively few morphological characteristics useful for their identification. Molecular approaches are now being used for identification and taxonomic resolution in many animal taxa including chironomids. In this study, mitochondrial gene, cytochrome c oxidase subunit I, has been used as phylogenetic marker in Orthocladiinae species collected from 12 lakes of Turkey. Neighbour-joining, maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood analysis have been used to identify the relationship between species. According to phylogenetic analysis Cricotopus bicintus, Cricotopus sylvestris, Cricotopus flavocinctus, Cricotopus patens, Rheocricotopus atripes and genus Psectrocladius have been formed monophyletic groups.