Sammendrag
Because they are difficult to identify, female Chironomidae are usually neglected in biodiversity studies. We employed DNA barcoding to investigate if their inclusion would substantially increase the species count in an inventory of cold water springs. All specimens were sampled with emergence traps to ensure that both males and females were collected from the same surface area. When possible, 3-5 specimens of each male morphotype were sequenced using standard DNA barcoding protocols. Most of the 216 males that were sequenced could be identified to species using existing literature, and all 66 species were discriminated by barcodes. Barcode results further indicated the presence of 58 species among 96 females which were selected for analysis based on their morphological diversity. In total, 93 species were recognised by morphology and barcode clusters. Of these, 31 species were represented by both sexes, 35 species by males and 27 species by females. Thus, despite the much lower sample size, almost 30% of the species were only represented by females. This result might reflect a high proportion of parthenogenetic species, biased sex ratios or general species rareness. We conclude that the inclusion of female chironomids, particularly at sites with many rare species or when sample sizes are small, will aid comprehensive species coverage.
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