Limnophyes Eaton, 1875

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 : 62

Limnophyes Eaton, 1875

Larvae of Limnophyes live in various habitats ranging from truly aquatic to terrestrial. In this study, we list eleven species from Alaska. Limnophyes asquamatus Andersen, 1937 was reported from Utqiagvik in a collection of the USNM made by P.D. Hurd in 1952 but listed as L. hamiltoni , its junior synonym ( Saether 1990). We collected adults of L. aquamatus at Deadman Lake in Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge. This species is considered one of the few Limnophyes to be truly aquatic ( Saether 1990).

We collected several males of a species of Limnophyes near difficilis Brundin, 1947 from the Deadman Lake campground in early August. We additionally collected four adult males of Limnophyes from Peterson Creek in the Juneau area that are likely Limnophyes edwardsi Saether, 1990 . However, we are uncertain of the identification due to the poor condition of the specimens. Limnophyes globifer (Lundstrom, 1915) was collected from the Ogotoruk Creek area by Watson et al. (1966).

We collected several adults of Limnophyes minimus (Meigen, 1818) along Deadman Lake in early August and Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in early July. We have collected L. minimus adults near various creeks in the Juneau area, and collection dates range from late April to mid-July and mid to late August.Additional collections of adults were made along the Yukon River delta in late June and mid-July and from larval DNA barcoded material collected from the Slikok Creek watershed in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge ( Bowser et al. 2020). We also collected larvae of this species in Meadow Creek, a tributary of Eagle River in Southcoastal Alaska. L. minimus larvae inhabit the wet areas, seeps, and the margin of small streams. Some populations of this species may be facultative pathogenetic ( Saether 1990). These collections are new faunistic records for Alaska.

We collected the adults of Limnophyes natalensis (Kieffer, 1914) near Margaret Creek on Revillagigedo Island, a new faunistic record for Alaska. We collected adults of Limnophyes pilicistulus Saether, 1975 , a new faunistic record for Alaska, from an area of spring seeps on Mt. Roberts in Juneau. Oliver & Dillon (1988) collected the adult male of this species on a north-facing talus slope at the south end of Trout Lake in Oregon. Limnophyes pumilio (Holmgren, 1869) was collected from the Ogotoruk Creek area by Watson et al. (1966) as Limnophyes globifer (Lundström, 1915) . Oliver et al. (1990) reported this species from Alaska but did not mention a location. We collected a male L. pumilo from the Yukon River delta area in mid-July.

We collected the adults of Limnophyes schnelli Saether, 1990 at multiple sites in the Southeastern bioregion, including Horse Island, Revillagigedo Island, and along the Bartlett River in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. Adult males were also collected on Mount Roberts in mid-June, a seep on the edge of Turner Lake in early August, and from the Yukon River delta area in mid-July. Saether (1990) reported that the pupa and the adult male holotype of L. schnelli were caught in drift net at the junction of a river and a small lake near a glacier in Norway. Larvae of Limnophyes have also been collected in tundra ponds ( Butler et al. 1980; Lougheed et al. 2011; AWQMS 2005) and rivers ( Arctos 2023; Brabets & Ourso 2013). Our larval collections of Limnophyes are from all bioregions of the state.