Recently, Chen Yizhu, an undergraduate student at the College of Fisheries and Life Science, Shanghai Ocean University, published a research paper in Zootaxa, an international journal of animal taxonomy. Combining morphological and DNA barcoding techniques, the paper reported two new species of aquatic insects: Cricotopus motuoensis, discovered in Motuo, Xizang, and Cricotopus neomatudigitatus, discovered in Guangdong, Guizhou and Zhejiang. Both new species belong to Pseudocricotopus, a rare subgenus within the genus Cricotopus; only seven species of this subgenus had previously been recorded worldwide.
Habitus photographs of Cricotopus neomatudigitatus: A, pupa; B, adult male; C, adult female.
In 2026, under the guidance of Associate Professor Lin Xiaolong of the College of Fisheries and Life Science, Shanghai Ocean University, students of the College have described a total of six new species of Chironomidae: in April, master's student Zhang Yan described the new species Tanytarsus sinicus, which is distributed in Bawangling, Hainan, Motuo, Xizang and Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, and is a highly peculiar species in Tanytarsus, the second largest genus of Chironomidae; in March, master's student Zhang Zhichao carried out a systematic review of the genus Rheosmittia in China and described two new species — Rheosmittia motuoensis and Rheosmittia wangi — which is the first record of the adults of this genus in China; in the same month, master's student Zhang Yini published Radotanypus wangi, a new species from Nagqu, Xizang, which is also the first description of the genus Radotanypus in China. All of the above work was published in Zootaxa.
A, adult male of Tanytarsus sinicus; B, adult male of Rheosmittia motuoensis; C, larva of Radotanypus wangi.
The discovery of this series of new species not only further enriches the records of aquatic insect diversity in China, but also provides new scientific evidence for the phylogeny, biogeographic distribution and aquatic eco-environmental monitoring of chironomids. Chironomid larvae are important indicator organisms of the trophic status and pollution level of water bodies, and the identification and description of new species will improve the accuracy of biological water quality assessment and contribute to the health assessment and protection of freshwater ecosystems in China. In addition, as regions such as Motuo in Xizang, Bawangling in Hainan and Xishuangbanna in Yunnan are global biodiversity hotspots, the successive discovery of new species highlights their key position in species evolution and the formation of refugia, and provides valuable material for understanding the faunal evolution of aquatic insects.