Mandibulate chironomids: primitive or derived? (Diptera: Chironomidae)

Mandibulate functional mouthparts are reported in males and females of the two Early Cretaceous Chironomidae (Diptera): Wadelius libanicus Veltz ef al., 2007 (in Tanypodinae) and Libanochlites Brundin, 1976 (transferred from the Podonominae to the Tanypodinae). Females of Haematotanypus libanicus gen.n. et sp.n. (subfamily Tanypodinae) have mandibulate mouthparts. Although currently considered as plesiomorphic structures, the presence of such mandibulate mouthparts in these Tanypodinae and in the recent Podonominae genera Archaeochlus and Austrochlus could correspond to reversals, based on a parsimony argument after the current chironomid phylogeny. On the contrary, similar mandibulate mouthparts probably are plesiomorphic in the Early Cretaceous Cretaenne kobeyssii gen.n. et sp.n. and Cretaenne inexpectata sp.n. (Aenneinae or stein group of recent Chironomidae).