RESUMO
Inter- and intracytogenetic variability was analyzed in 13 natural Palearctic populations of Chironomus riparius Meigen 1804 (syn. Chironomus thummi) by examining hereditary and somatic aberrations (mainly inversions) of the salivary gland polytene chromosomes. In total, 77 different types of inherited inversion sequences and 184 different types of somatic inversions were found. The median percent frequency of inherited inversions was 1.4% and karyotypic divergence between populations was very low. Most hereditary inversions were endemic and always in a heterozygous state. Only six inversion sequences, each of them shared by two very distant populations, may be considered a relic of very ancient ancestral inversions. Unlike inherited inversions, occurrence of somatic aberrations seems to increase with the overall rise in the level of heavy metal pollution of the sediments from which larvae were sampled. In contrast with what occurs in populations of other chironomid species, populations of C. riparius do not seem to undergo a process of cytogenetic differentiation.