Nilotanypus Kieffer, 1923

Namayandeh, Armin, Hudson, Patrick L., Bogan, Daniel L. & Hudson, John P., 2024, Chironomidae (Diptera: Insecta) of Alaska, USA, with descriptions of new species and a checklist, Zootaxa 5511 (1), pp. 1-95 : 45

Nilotanypus Kieffer, 1923

In his paper on the Tanypodinae of Afognak and Kodiak Islands, Roback (1984) notes that because Nilotanypus fimbriatus (Walker, 1848) has been recorded from the Canadian Northwest Territories, British Columbia, and the Yukon Territory, its distribution in Alaska is to be expected. Larvae in this genus are among the smallest found in the family Tanypodinae . We subsequently collected larvae of this taxon in four bioregions of the state, which represent a new faunistic record for the genus and species in Alaska. In Southcoastal Alaska we collected larvae of this species from the East Fork of the Moose River on the Kenai Peninsula. In Central Alaska, we collected larvae of N. fimbriatus in Lucille and Little Meadow Creeks near Wasilla, and Caswell Creek, north of Willow, and from the Kanuti River in the northern part of the Central bioregion, in Kanuti National Wildlife Refuge. In western Central Alaska we collected N. fimbriatus in the Little Mulchatna River, west of Lake Clark National Park, where it is quite common. In Southeast Alaska we collected a single larva of N. fimbriatus in Harriet Hunt Creek, outlet to Harriet Hunt Lake, near Ketchikan.

Larvae in this genus are among the smallest found in the family Tanypodinae . According to Cranston & Epler (2013), the larvae are usually found in clean, shallow, sand-bottom streams. Based on our collections in Alaska, N. fimbriatus larvae seems to prefer warmer water downstream from lakes or beaver impoundments.