Chironomidae from Central Europe

Study Extent

The dataset is based on seasonal sampling campaigns conducted over a one-year period from autumn of 2018 to summer of 2019 and six, bimonthly repeated sampling series conducted in 2021. Sampling was performed in the Bükkösdi-víz catchment (Hungary), the Butižnica River catchment (Croatia) and the Velička River catchment (Czechia). A total of 15 sampling sites were selected from Croatian, 43 from Hungarian and 20 from Czech sampling area. Overall, 5,481 occurrence records from 78 study locations were presented. The data are related solely to stream habitats.

Sampling

The dataset comprises records obtained through both quantitative and qualitative sampling methods. In most cases, quantitative approaches were employed, following multihabitat sampling protocol within a 100-meter-long stream reach, with 12 collected subsamples (cca. 0.75 m2 sampled area) followed by kick & sweep method for the 2018/2019 setting. In 2021, the mean wetted width of the stream/pools determined the sampled reach's length (20× wetted width, 50–150 m) and the sampled area (0.5–1.5 m2 in flowing conditions, 0.1–0.5 m2 when only pools were present). Samples were taken using a Surber net. Qualitative sampling was limited to some sites in Bükkösdi-víz catchment where floating chironomid pupal exuviae were collected from the water surface using hand net and plastic tray.

Quality Control

Quality control for geographic data: Reliability of coordinates was checked in Google maps to identify the correctness of sites. Geographic coordinate format, coordinates within county boundaries in the dataset were also double checked. Quality control for taxonomic data: Professional experience of experts was applied as quality controls on dataset. Nomenclature validation was based on the GBIF taxonomic backbone.

Method steps

1. After sampling & sorting described above, the identification of chironomid larvae aimed to achieve the highest possible taxonomic resolution, considering that, morphological identification of larval specimens is often limited to the generic level at most. For the morphological identification of larvae, the following keys were utilized: Cranston (1982), Cranston and Reiss (1983), Kiknadze (1991), Schulze (1994), Schmid (1996), Janecek (1998), Sæther et al. (2000), Klink and Moller Pillot (2003), Vallenduuk and Moller Pillot (2007), Andersen et al. (2013), Orendt and Bendt (2020). These general keys were complemented by additional taxon-specific works, including those by Ekrem (2004), Stur and Ekrem (2006), Rossaro and Lencioni (2015), Cuppen and Tempelman (2018), Vallenduuk (2019), Cuppen and Tempelman (2022). For identification of pupae and exuviae the keys by Michiels and Spies (2002), Langton and Visser (2003), Ekrem (2004) and Stur and Ekrem (2006) were used.

Phylum: Arthropoda, Class: Insecta, Order: Diptera, Family: Chironomidae. Dataset contains record of different taxonomic level (genus, genus, confer., aggregate species, species group, pair of species, species, confer., species) of family Chironomidae, Diptera. In case of 31 record were complemented associated sequences from BOLD system.

1. Arthropoda
   rank: phylum
2. Insecta
   rank: class
3. Diptera
   rank: order
4. Chironomidae
   rank: family

Europe; Croatia, County of Šibenik-Knin, catchment area of Butižnica River; Hungary, County of Baranya, catchment area of Bükkösdi-víz; Czechia, County of South Moravia, catchment area of Velička River