Comparative analysis of karyotypes of Chironomussolitus Linevich & Erbaeva, 1971 and Chironomusanthracinus Zetterstedt, 1860 (Diptera, Chironomidae) from East Siberia.

A comparative chromosome banding analysis of Chironomussolitus Linevich & Erbaeva, 1971 and Chironomusanthracinus Zetterstedt, 1860 from East Siberia (Lakes Baikal, Gusinoe, Arakhley and Irkutsk Reservoir) showed close similarity of banding sequences. Chironomussolitus differs from Chironomusanthracinus in one species-specific sequence of arm B. Arms C (43%) and D (30%) had inversion banding sequences previously reported in Chironomusanthracinus The similarity of karyotypic features of Chironomussolitus and Chironomusanthracinus in combination with morphological features of larvae provide evidence in favour of including Chironomussolitus in the Chironomusanthracinus group of sibling species long with Chironomusreservatus Shobanov, 1997.

Phylogeny of the endemic Baikalian Sergentia (Chironomidae, Diptera).

Fragments of two mitochondrial genes, cytochrome b (CytB) and Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) have been used as phylogenetic markers in Sergentia (Chironomidae, Diptera). The concatenated (1241 bp) sequences from both genes were used to infer the phylogenetic relationships among seven Sergentia species. Five of the species belong to the endemic fauna of Lake Baikal. Alignments of the nucleotide sequences were used for the construction of trees using Neighbor-Joining and maximum parsimony methods. Both methods yielded similar results. Monophyly of both Sergentia and the Baikalian endemic species was well supported. The date of origin of the endemic group of Sergentia was estimated as 25.7 MYA which closely coincides with the start of geological changes in the Baikal area. A cytological tree, based on 12 chromosomal characteristics, for the same set of Sergentia species showed a great similarity to the molecular phylogeny.