Bryophaenocladius Thienemann, 1934

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 : 54

Bryophaenocladius Thienemann, 1934

Watson et al. (1966) found Bryophaenocladius aestivus (Brundin, 1947) , the only species of this genus recorded from Alaska at the time. Their collections were made in Western Alaska in the vicinity of the Ogotoruk Creek watershed during the summer from 1959 to 1961. We collected several adult males of Bryophaenocladius sclerus Wang, Liu & Epler, 2004 from Mt. Roberts in Juneau at an altitude of 618 m. Adults of B. sclerus were previously collected in the vicinity of creeks in North Carolina and Tennessee at altitudes of 1067 m ( Wang et al. 2004). This is the first faunistic record of this species from Alaska. This species is probably widespread in the Nearctic. We have collected Bryophaenocladius larvae from streams in the Southwestern bioregion and streams and rivers in the Southeastern bioregion of Alaska.

The larval habitats of Bryophaenocladius species vary from terrestrial habitats such as bird nests to ephemeral pools to the shoreline of alpine lakes. Some species are pests in greenhouse crops and have been associated with damaging winter wheat crops (Andersen et al. 2013; Armitage 1995).