Krenosmittia Thienemann & Krüger, 1939

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 : 61

Krenosmittia Thienemann & Krüger, 1939

Krenosmittia camptophleps (Edwards, 1929) pupae were collected from Answer Creek, a tributary of the Susitna River, near Talkeetna in mid June and represents a new United States record. Adults of Krenosmittia halvorseni (Cranston & Saether, 1986) were collected in late April and mid July by sweep netting around Ebner Falls on Gold Creek in Juneau, Spike Creek, and Margaret Creek on Revillagigedo Island and near seeps on Mt. Roberts and near the Eagle River north of Juneau. A female associated with a pupa of K. halvorseni was also collected in South Fork Chester Creek near Anchorage in late August. We also collected larvae of this species from a tributary to South Fork Koktuli River in Southwest Alaska, Bodenberg and Grey’s Creeks in the Mat-Su Valley, and Little Sheep Creek in Juneau. Larvae of Krenosmittia have also been collected in every bioregion as reported by AWQMS (2005), Brabets & Ourso (2013), Hayford et al. (2014) and Arctos (2023). The other records of Krenosmittia come from the work of Webb et al. (2022), who collected larvae of Krenosmittia halvorseni from an unnamed tributary of Stony Creek in Denali National Park and Preserve. Krenosmittia species are distinguishable based on the characteristics provided by Makarchenko & Makarchenko (2011).

The microhabitat of Krenosmittia larvae has been reported as springs and small bodies of flowing water ( Fittkau & Reiss 1976) but also in the hyporheic zone of streams up to 0.4 m below the stream bed. In such cases, the presence of pupal exuviae maybe the only indication that the species is present in the stream ( Ferrington 1984).