''Gigantodax'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of 68

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

black flies A black fly or blackfly (sometimes called a buffalo gnat, turkey gnat, or white socks) is any member of the family Simuliidae of the Culicomorpha infraorder. It is related to the Ceratopogonidae, Chironomidae, and Thaumaleidae. Over 2,200 speci ...

distributed along the

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

from Mexico to

Tierra del Fuego Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South America, South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main is ...

in Argentina.
The Polytene Chromosomes of Cnesia dissimilis (Edwards) and Three Species of Gigantodax Enderlein (Diptera: Simuliidae) from Lanin National Park (Argentina) by Cecilia L Coscaron Arias

Taxonomy

The Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy of the genus was revised in 1989 by an

academic paper Academic publishing is the subfield of publishing which distributes Research, academic research and scholarship. Most academic work is published in academic journal articles, books or Thesis, theses. The part of academic written output that is n ...

published in the

bulletin Bulletin or The Bulletin may refer to: Periodicals (newspapers, magazines, journals) * ''Bulletin'' (online newspaper), a Swedish online newspaper * ''The Bulletin'' (Australian periodical), an Australian magazine (1880–2008) ** Bulletin De ...

of the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interconn ...

. In 1997, researchers from the ''

Universidad Nacional del Comahue The National University of Comahue (, UNCNavarro, Fernando A. ''. Tremédica, Asociación Internacional de Traductores y Redactores de Medicina y Ciencias Afines/UNCoPortal de Prensa de la Uncoma, Universidad Nacional del Comahue'/Uncoma) is an ...

'' in Rio Negro,

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

collected

larva A larva (; : larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect development such as insects, some arachnids, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase ...

e of '' G. marginalis'' and other

fly Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced ...

species in

Lanín National Park Lanín National Park () is a national park of Argentina, located in the Neuquén Province, with forests of diverse tree varieties, mainly Fagaceae and conifers such as the lenga and the ''Araucaria'', many species of which are not found elsewher ...

Neuquén Province Neuquén () is a Provinces of Argentina, province of Argentina, located in the west of the country, at the northern end of Patagonia. It borders Mendoza Province to the north, Rio Negro Province to the southeast, and Chile to the west. It also me ...

. After a close examination included

chromosome A chromosome is a package of DNA containing part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes, the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with nucleosome-forming packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells, the most import ...

mapping, they reported:

Females are not
anthropophilic In parasitology, anthropophilia, from the Greek ἅνθρωπος (anthrōpos, "human being") and φιλία (philia, "friendship" or "love"), is a preference of a parasite or dermatophyte for humans over other animals.Braun-Falco, Otto (2000). ' ...
and can be found as well as in
mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...
creeks from sea level to 4,700 m of altitude (Wygodzinsky & Coscaron 1989). ''Gigantodax'' is a peculiar genus, showing the greatest diversity among the Prosimuliini genera, with synapomorphies in imago and preimaginal stages that help to differentiate species in this genus from other genera. The unusual
morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines *Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts *Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies, ...
of the
respiratory The respiratory system (also respiratory apparatus, ventilatory system) is a biological system consisting of specific organs and structures used for gas exchange in animals and plants. The anatomy and physiology that make this happen varies gr ...
filaments in the pupal stage is useful in differentiating species.

These

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

n researchers also analyzed '' G. marginalis'', '' G. fulvescens'', and '' G. chilensis'' and reported that '' Cnesia'', another Prosimuliini genus, is

sympatric In biology, two closely related species or populations are considered sympatric when they exist in the same geographic area and thus frequently encounter each other. An initially interbreeding population that splits into two or more distinct spe ...

with southern populations of ''Gigantodax'' and that both genera breed on both sides of the Andean range in Argentina and

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

subantarctic The sub-Antarctic zone is a physiographic region in the Southern Hemisphere, located immediately north of the Antarctic region. This translates roughly to a latitude of between 46th parallel south, 46° and 60th parallel south, 60° south of t ...

Patagonia Patagonia () is a geographical region that includes parts of Argentina and Chile at the southern end of South America. The region includes the southern section of the Andes mountain chain with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and glaciers ...

. They also reported that ''Gigantodax'' species in this area are also sympatric with ''

Simulium ''Simulium'' is a genus of Black_fly, black flies, which may transmit diseases such as onchocerciasis (river blindness). It is a large genus with almost 2,000 species and 38 subgenus, subgenera. The flies are pool feeders. Their saliva, wh ...

''. These genus was re-examined in 2007 by

entomologists Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...

from the

Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (, UFRJ) is a public research university in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the largest federal university in the country and is one of the Brazilian centers of excellence in teaching and research. Brazil's ...

in Brazil who explained that in their paper:

...the first
phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

hypothesis A hypothesis (: hypotheses) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. A scientific hypothesis must be based on observations and make a testable and reproducible prediction about reality, in a process beginning with an educated guess o ...
for the 13 Southern Hemisphere genera of Simuliidae is proposed, through a cladistic approach. In order to investigate the position of those genera representatives of five
Northern Hemisphere The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined by humans as being in the same celestial sphere, celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the Solar ...
genera were also included in the analyses as outgroups. The study was based on a data matrix with 33 terminal taxa and 119 morphological characters of adult, pupa and larva. The phylogenetic analysis under equal weights resulted in four most parsimonious trees, with similar topologies and 349 steps...
Preliminary considerations on phylogeny of Simuliidae Genera from Southern Hemisphere (Insecta, Diptera)

Species

*'' Brophyi (Species group), Brophyi'' species-group :*'' G. antarcticus'' (

Bigot Discrimination is the process of making unfair or prejudicial distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong, such as race, gender, age, class, religion, or sexu ...

, 1888) :*'' G. awa'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. brophyi'' ( Edwards, 1931) :*'' G. chilensis'' (Philippi, 1865) :*'' G. femineus'' ( Edwards, 1931) :*'' G. flabellus'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. kuscheli'' Wygodzinsky, 1952 :*'' G. laevigatus'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. luispenai'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. marginalis'' ( Edwards, 1931) :*'' G. multituberculatus'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. ortizi'' Wygodzinsky, 1974 :*'' G. osornorum'' Muñoz de Hoyos, Martínez, Mejía & Bueno, 1995 :*'' G. paramorum'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. patihuaycensis'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. rufidulus'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. trifidus'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. viannamartinsi'' Ramírez-Pérez, 1980 :*'' G. zumbahuae'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 *'' Cilicinus'' species-group :*'' G. arrarteorum'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. basinflatus'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. cilicinus'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. clandestinus'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. destitutus'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. fulvescens'' (Blanchard, 1852) :*'' G. incomitatus'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. lazoi'' Takaoka, Hirai & Tada, 1988 :*'' G. mariobordai'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. pennipunctus'' Enderlein, 1934 :*'' G. shannoni'' ( Edwards, 1931) *'' Cormonsi'' species-group :*'' G. abalosi'' Wygodzinsky, 1958 :*'' G. brevis'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. cormonsi'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. gracilis'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. leonorum'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. misitu'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. praealtus'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. siberianus'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. vulcanius'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. wygodzinskyi'' Moncada, Muñoz de Hoyos & Bueno, 1981 *'' Igniculus'' species-group :*'' G. carmenae'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. igniculus'' Coscarón & Wygodzinsky, 1962 *''

Minor Minor may refer to: Common meanings * Minor (law), a person not under the age of certain legal activities. * Academic minor, a secondary field of study in undergraduate education Mathematics * Minor (graph theory), a relation of one graph to an ...

'' species-group :*'' G. araucanius'' ( Edwards, 1931) :*'' G. bolivianus'' Enderlein, 1925 :*'' G. eremicus'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. minor'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 *'' Multifilis'' species-group :*'' G. multifilis'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 *'' Wrighti'' species-group :*'' G. adleri'' Moulton, 1996 :*'' G. aquamarensis'' (De León, 1945) :*'' G. bettyae'' Wygodzinsky, 1974 :*'' G. bierigi'' Vargas & Ramírez-Pérez, 1989 :*'' G. cervicornis'' Wygodzinsky, 1974 :*'' G. conviti'' Ramírez-Pérez, 1980 :*'' G. corniculatus'' Wygodzinsky, 1974 :*'' G. cypellus'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. dryadicaudicis'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. herreri'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. horcotiani'' Wygodzinsky, 1949 :*'' G. impossibilis'' Wygodzinsky, 1974 :*'' G. incapucara'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. nasutus'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. rufescens'' ( Edwards, 1931) :*'' G. septenarius'' Wygodzinsky & Coscarón, 1989 :*'' G. willei'' Vargas & Ramírez-Pérez, 1989 :*'' G. wrighti'' (Vargas, Martínez Palacios & Díaz Nájera, 1944) *Unplaced :*'' G. cuyano'' Coscarón, 1981 :*'' G. dryadibranchium'' Coscarón, 1981 :*'' G. pucara'' Coscarón, 1981

Literature cited

{{Authority control Simuliidae Culicomorpha genera Taxa named by Günther Enderlein