Ptychoptera minuta, Tonnoir, 1919

Wiberg-Larsen, Peter, Hansen, Søren Birkholm, Rinne, Aki, Viitanen, Esko & Krogh, Paul Henning, 2021, Key to Ptychopteridae (Diptera) larvae of Northern Europe, with notes on distribution and biology, Zootaxa 5039 (2), pp. 179-200 : 194

Ptychoptera minuta

The species has an overall northern distribution and is present in almost all countries within the regarded geographical area ( Figure 6C ). It has not been recorded in Estonia, Latvia and the Kaliningrad region of Russia ( Zwick 2020), but it most probably occurs there too. Its range reaches far north and it seems to be abundant everywhere ( Figure 5F ). Its distributional area extends south to the northern part of middle Europe ( Czech Republic) and into the eastern Palaearctic ( Zwick 2020).

The breeding habitats of the species in Denmark are mainly very small, shallow, permanent and stagnant water bodies, located in woodland or grassland. The habitats are often located adjacent to lakes. There are also a few records from small streams, but these possibly represents misidentified P. scutellaris .

Flight period range from May to September within most of the distributional area of the species, peaking in June/July. In northernmost Scandinavia, the flight period is shorter and peaks in July.

Figures

FIGURE 5. Distribution of Ptychoptera species within the geographical area defined as Northern Europe, delineated by grey line. A. Ptychoptera albimana; B. P. lacustris; C. P. longicauda; D. P. paludosa. Blue dots show specific records, blue raster indicates confirmed but unspecified presence and red raster indicates likely presence.

FIGURE 6. Distribution of Ptychoptera species within the geographical area defined as Northern Europe, delineated by grey line. A. Ptychoptera contaminata; B. P. hugoi; C. P. minuta; D. P. scutellaris. Blue dots show specific records, blue raster indicates confirmed but unspecified presence and red raster indicates likely presence.