Antillocladius

Genus of flies

Antillocladius is a genus of midges belonging to the family Chironomidae, subfamily Orthocladiinae. The name Antillocladius means orthoclad (subfamily Orthocladiinae) that occurs in the Antilles, where it was primarily recorded.

The genus Antillocladius is distributed in the Nearctic, Neotropical, Palaearctic (East Asia) and Indomalayan realms. The genus was erected by Sæther (1981) based on A. antecalvus Sæther, 1981, from the British West Indies: Saint Vincent and Saint Lucia. Subsequently, Sæther (1982) described two new species from the southeastern United States (Antillocladius arcuatus and Antillocladius pluspilalus) and emended the genus. Wang and Sæther (1993) described two additional new species from Palaearctic and Oriental China. Andersen and Contreras Ramos (1999) described the first species from Continental South America (Ecuador). The genus was revised by Mendes, Andersen & Sæther (2004), with the addition of nine species, plus two Japanese species transferred to the genus (Yamamoto, 2004). Recently the genus was revised by Mendes & Andersen (2008) with the addition of 7 new species from Brazil and a new combination of a species from India. The genus thus comprises:

A. anandae Mendes, Andersen & Hagenlund, 2011 recorded from Brazil
A. antecalvus Sæther, 1981 recorded from Saint Vincent, Brazil and Venezuela
A. arcuatus Sæther, 1982 recorded from United States, Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela
A. atalaia Mendes & Andersen, 2008 recorded from Brazil
A. axitiosus Mendes & Andersen, 2008 recorded from Brazil
A. biota Mendes, Andersen & Sæther, 2004 recorded from Brazil
A. brazuca Mendes & Andersen, 2008 recorded from Brazil
A. calakmulensis Mendes, Andersen & Sæther, 2004 recorded from Mexico
A. campususp Mendes & Andersen, 2008 recorded from Brazil
A. folius Mendes, Andersen & Sæther, 2004 recorded from Brazil
A. gephyrus Mendes & Andersen, 2008 recorded from Brazil
A. herradurus Mendes, Andersen & Sæther, 2004 recorded from Mexico
A. itatiaia Mendes, Andersen & Hagenlund, 2011 recorded from Brazil
A. laviejae Ospina Torres, Jaime Murcia & Mey, 2018 recorded from Colombia
A. musci Mendes, Andersen & Sæther, 2004 recorded from Brazil
A. plicatus Mendes & Andersen, 2008 recorded from Brazil
A. pluspilalus Sæther, 1982 recorded from United States, Ecuador, Mexico and Nicaragua
A. scalpellatus Wang & Sæther, 1993 recorded from China and Russia
A. skartveiti Andersen & Contreras Ramos, 1999 recorded from Ecuador
A. sooretama Mendes, Andersen & Sæther, 2004 recorded from Brazil
A. subnubilus (Sinharay & Chaudhuri, 1979) recorded from India
A. tokarameneus (Sasa & Suzuki, 1995) recorded from Japan
A. ubatuba Mendes, Andersen & Sæther, 2004 recorded from Brazil
A. ultimus Mendes & Andersen, 2008 recorded from Brazil
A. venequatoriensis Mendes, Andersen & Sæther, 2004 recorded from Venezuela and Ecuador
A. yakyijeus (Sasa & Suzuki, 2000) recorded from Japan
A. zempoalensis Mendes, Andersen & Sæther, 2004 recorded from Mexico
A. zhengi Wang & Sæther, 1993 recorded from China and Thailand

The species are based on male genitalia characters and only two females are described, A. musci and A. antecalvus. The pupae are known of only four species, A. antecalvus, A. folius, A. musci and A. pluspilalus. The larvae are known of only three species, A. folius, A. musci and A. pluspilalus. The immatures of the genus are described from terrestrial and semi terrestrial habitats, sharing the environment with many other genera in the subfamily Orthocladiinae.