Pseudosmittia Edwards, 1932

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 : 70-71

Pseudosmittia Edwards, 1932

We found Pseudosmittia forcipata (Goetghebuer, 1921) , Pseudosmittia holsata Thienemann & Strenzke, 1940 and Pseudosmittia parinavama Ferrington & Saether, 2011 all of which are new faunistic records for Alaska. Adults of P. forcipata were collected near Hanus Bay on Catherine Island in mid-May, at the mouth of the Herbert River near Juneau in mid-August, near a tributary to Margaret Creek on Revillagigedo Island in late August and from the Yukon River delta in early July suggesting at least two generations per year for this species in Alaska. We collected adults from the subalpine ecosystem on Mount Roberts Trail in mid-July. A larva of P. holsata was collected in Troublesome Creek off the Parks Highway (Highway 3) south of Denali State Park. We collected a swarm of P. parinavama adults in Sitka National Historical Park.

Other Pseudosmittia records include specimens from Ogotoruk Creek ( Watson et al. 1966), larval material from St. Matthew Island ( Sikes 2017) and Denali National Park ( Brabets & Ourso 2013). Butler et al. (1980) noted that emergence traps set near the edges of Carex beds in tundra ponds caught adults of Pseudosmittia , suggesting a semiterrestrial habitat, which is the habitat typically associated with this genus.