The Comparative Gut Content Analysis of Some Chironomidae Larvae Living in the Freshwaters at Northern Thrace Region of Turkey

İngilizce (OpenAlex)

The roles of larval chironomids in the food chain of both the lotic and the lentic ecosystems are very important. On the one hand, chironomid larvae feeding on algae, diatoms, rotting organic matter, plant, and animal residues also play an important role in these systems as a source of food for other carnivores and omnivorous organisms. In this study, the gut contents of Cryptochironomus defectus (Kieffer, 1913), Cladotanytarsus mancus (Walker, 1856), Polypedilum scalaenum (Schrank, 1803), Tanypus kraatzi (Kieffer, 1912) collected from the freshwater ecosystems located in the northern parts of the Thrace region of Turkey were analyzed to compare their feeding habits. As a result of the analysis, it was determined that while plant fragments were dominant in C. defectus species in the gut content (44.3%), algae were dominant for C. mancus (44.7%), P. scalaenum (63.5%), T. kraatzi (65%). According to the results of the Shannon-Wiener (H') index species, diversity of the P. scalaenum was found to be the highest among the larvae (H'= 1.345). Also, according to the Bray-Curtis similarity index, the most similar types of gut contents were P. scalaenum and C. defectus (38%). This low rate indicated that the species have different food preferences.