Platysmittia Saether, 1982

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 : 69

Platysmittia Saether, 1982

Only the larvae of Platysmittia bilyji Saether, 1982 have been collected in Alaska. The larva of this species is described by Jacobsen (1998). Of the two known species in the genus, P. bilyji has a wide Holarctic distribution compared to Platysmittia fimbriata Saether, 1982 , which has only been found in the eastern United States. Our records are from the East Alsek River in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve and a second order stream on Kruzof Island in Southeast Alaska, a tributary to the Mulchanta River in Southwest Alaska, the Nation River in Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, and from Meadow Creek near Wasilla. Other larval records of Platysmittia are found in the Arctos database and are from Upper Talarik Creek and tributaries to Stuyahok and Koktuli Rivers in Southwest Alaska. Larvae were also collected in various northern coastal streams (AWQMS 2005). Most of Jacobsen’s (1998) collection sites were small intermittent steams within deciduous forest except for one third-order stream which he suggested the larvae and pupae present may have been flushed from intermittent streams associated with the third-order stream. Our collections sites suggest otherwise.