Parachironomus Lenz, 1921

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 : 81

Parachironomus Lenz, 1921

At least four species of Parachironomus have been documented in Alaska. In early August, we collected Parachironomus gillespieae Spies, 2000 adults from a lake in the Kanuti National Wildlife Refuge. This is a new faunistic record for Alaska. We collected Parachironomus tenuicaudatus ( Malloch, 1915) adults at the Alaskan/ Yukon border in early August. Bowser et al. (2020) collected larvae of this species from the Miller Creek watershed on the Kenai Peninsula. We collected larvae of this species from the Usuktuk River on the Arctic Coastal Plain. Our record of Parachironomus varus (Goetghebuer, 1921) is based on a male we collected from Auke Lake in mid-August and larvae from Twin Lake on Kupreanof Island and the Yukon River delta. This is a new faunistic record for Alaska. We collected Parachironomus arcuatus group larvae from lakes along the Arctic Coastal Plain and Twin Lakes on Kupreanof Island. Unknown larvae have been reported from the Kuskokwin River by Hayford et al. (2014), Toolik Lake by Hershey (1985), and from lakes and streams in the Arctic Coastal Plain (AWQMS 2005). Larvae of Parachironomus inhabit both flowing and standing water. Some species live in association with bryozoans, are ectoparasites on other invertebrates, or mine in leaves and stems of aquatic plants ( Epler et al. 2013).