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Dear Marion,

Your additional photos reveal a little more, but their resolution and focus aren't high enough to allow conclusive evaluation. For example, the gonostylus in the second image fits Rh. maculipennis, but other parts of the hypopygium are out of focus; similarly in the third image, the apex of mid tarsomere 3 looks like there may be an apical 'brush' indeed, but ...

I hope you don't mind me saying so, but I think that you shouldn't rely on photos posted online and the comments you receive on them from people whose expertise you do not know enough to rely on it. Forums like this one here can offer pointers, but these cannot substitute for the unavoidable hard science to be done by every worker himself or herself. In the present case, I suggest you take a standard guide to species identifications such as Langton & Pinder (2007) - please see http://literature...ronomidae/x - and work through its relevant keys and illustrations (e.g., fig. 17D).

Concerning your question about 'distinct wing patterns': In Chironomidae there are various different kinds of microscopic structures that can result in macroscopic appearance of colour or light-versus-dark patterns. Examples of such structures are dark setae sitting on the wing that can be rubbed off so that the pattern disappears, pigmentation on the wing membrane that doesn't rub off, and some others. However, my use of the word 'distinct' did not imply any of these morphological details, but simply meant that the wing pattern in your first image is obvious rather than faint or the like.

Signing off from this thread with kind regards,

Martin Spies