Quantitative and qualitative analyses of chromosomal polymorphism in 38 Palearctic populations of Chironomus plumosus were made. It was shown that most of the populations studied were highly polymorphic: in average 63.2 +/- 4.0% of larvae were heterozygous for inversions with 0.95 + 0.08 heterozygous inversion per larvae. Polymorphism on the size of centromeric heterochromatin and the presence of B-chromosomes were observed in many populations studied. The karyofund of Ch. plumosus in Palearctic was estimated. In total 35 banding sequences were found in Palearctic Ch. plumosus. Fifteen banding seguences have been described for the first time. On mapping the used banding sequences, we employed the conventions of Keyl (Keyl, 1962; Devai et al., 1989) and Maximova (Maximova, 1976; Shobanov, 1994a) for arms A, C, D, E and F, and the conventions of Maximova for arms B and G.
Animals Chironomidae