Paracladius Hirvenoja, 1973

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 : 67

Paracladius Hirvenoja, 1973

To date only two species of Paracladius were known from Alaska, Paracladius quadrinodosus Hirvenoja, 1973 and Paracladius conversus (Walker, 1865) . We collected an adult male Paracladius omolonus Makarchenko & Makarchenko, 2006 from the Yukon River delta in late June, which represents a new faunistic record for the Nearctic ( Fig. 10Q ). Close to twenty larvae of P. quadrinodosus were collected from Toolik Lake by Hershey (1985) using a 10 cm core sampler. This species is known to occur in the littoral zone of oligotrophic to ultra-oligotrophic lakes ( Oliver 1976). We found the larvae of P. conversus in the East Alsek River and from a distributary of the Yukon River in the delta area. We also found two larvae that differ from the two known larvae, P. conversus and Paracladius alpicola (Zetterstedt, 1850) , in Bodenberg and Grey’s Creeks in the Mat-Su Valley. The larvae of Paracladius were reported from the small lakes and streams that dot the Arctic Coastal Plain of Alaska (AWQMS 2005, Arctos 2023).

Not much is known about the ecology of Paracladius species except Welch (1976), who found that the life cycle of P. quadrinodosus spans 2–3 years in an Arctic lake in northern Canada.

Figures

FIGURE 10. The new Nearctic faunistic records of Alaskan Chironomidae I. Lappodiamesa vidua (Kieffer, 1922) larva (A– C); Acamptocladius submontanus (Edwards, 1932) male (D); Cricotopus (Paratrichocladius) scaturigineus (Makarchenko & Makarchenko, 2014) male, pupa, larva (E–F); Eukiefferiella clypeata Kieffer, 1922 male, pupa (H–J); Eukiefferiella gracei (Edwards, 1929) male, pupa (K–M); Heleniella ornaticollis (Edwards, 1929) male (N); Metriocnemus shoulcarus Sasa, 1989 male (O–P). Paracladius omolonus Makarchenko & Makarchenko, 2006 (Q). Parakiefferiella rara Makarchenko & Makarchenko, 2007 male, pupa (R–S). A. Mentum. B. premandible. C. procercus. D. hypopygium. E. hypopygium. F. tergites II–V. G. mandibles, mentum, labrum. H. hypopygium. I. tergites II–V. J. thoracic horn. K. hypopygium. L. tergites II–V. M. thoracic horn. N. hypopygium. O. antenna. P. hypopygium. Q. hypopygium. R. hypopygium. S. tergites VI–IX. Scale bars are 50 µm.