Culicoides Latreille and Leptoconops Skuse biting midges of the southwestern United States with emphasis on the Canyonlands of southeastern Utah (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) Author Phillips, Robert A. 2962 Desert Road Moab, UT 84532 USA text Insecta Mundi 2022 2022-01-28 2022 907 1 214 journal article 10.5281/zenodo.6391684 1942-1354 6391684 CBD29188-143B-44DF-BE21-1654D50D8621 Culicoides doeringae Atchley ( Fig. 84, 85 , 138, 139, 229, 230, 264) Culicoides ( Oecacta ) doeringae Atchley, 1967: 1014 (key; numerical characters; female; male genitalia; fig. female wing, palpus, tibial comb, eye separation, spermathecae, antennal segments, male genitalia, parameres; New Mexico ). Atchley and Wirth 1975: 1423 (comparison with C . lophortygis ). Wirth et al. 1985: 22 (numerical characters; fig. female wing). Culicoides piliferus No. 2: Jorgensen 1969: 24 (key; quantitative characters; female; male genitalia; fig. wing, spermathecae, palpus, antenna, male parameres, genitalia; eastern Washington ). Diagnosis. ( Tables 14–16 ) Brown. Wing pattern distinct; r 2 dark; isolated pale spots straddling midportions of M 1 and M 2 ; distal pale spot in r 3 filling most of distal half, but may be indistinct; distal pale spots in m 1 , m 2 ; no pale band or patch on posteromedian margin of anal cell; flagellomeres 9–10 normal, each larger than 8; SCo pattern 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, (10), 11–13, rarely absent from 9; eyes narrowly separated 0.1–1.0 ommatidium diameter; labrum without apical median projection; scutellum with 8–10 setae on female; fore and hind tarsomeres without apical spines; spermathecae unequal by ~1.4, sclerotized necks <0.5 as long as wide or absent; sclerotized ring on spermathecal duct; male tergite 9 posterior margin concave, with distinct apicolateral processes extending beyond medial portion; sternite 9 caudomedian excavation deep and about three-sided; ventral apodeme of gonocoxite with two widely divergent processes, footlike; aedeagus Y-shaped, basal arms with basal ends slightly curved laterally, arms without submedian fingerlike lobes, arms posteromedially fused by moderate sclerotization, median process simple, aedeagal ratio 0.45–0.6; parameres separate with basal heads broad anvillike, with fringe of spines on apical third, without submedian lobe. Distribution. Washington ( Jorgensen 1969 ), Oregon , Idaho (Bonneville County new state record ), Montana , south through Utah (Garfield, Grand, Summit counties), Colorado , to California , Arizona , New Mexico . Larval ecology. Jorgensen (1969) collected “ C . piliferus No. 2” (which I think is synonymous with C . doeringae , see remarks) with an emergence trap over a freshwater seepage spring in a cattle pasture; however, he conflates the seasonal distribution and abundance data for “ C . piliferus No. 2” with that of his distinctly different “ C . piliferus No. 1”, making it uncertain as to which species these data apply. Adult behavior. The mandibular and lacinial teeth on the female indicate it feeds on vertebrate blood; and though its hosts are unknown, it is a member of the Piliferus group, generally considered ornithophilic ( Wirth and Hubert 1962 ). Furthermore, like Piliferus group species A, C . doeringae was moderately common in light traps but nearly absent from CO 2 -baited traps ( Table 4 ). Symbionts. Male and female C . doeringae were parasitized by larval mites ( Table 10 ), which species may indicate C . doeringae ’s pupal habitat or oviposition site. Remarks. Because Jorgensen’s (1969: 24) descriptions of the female and of the male genitalia of his “ C . piliferus No. 2” (including his Fig. 8B 1 ) are so similar to C . doeringae in all respects, I think they are conspecific. Culicoides doeringae specimens collected in Grand County have considerable variation of wing pattern intensity (Fig. 138, 139, 229, 230) ; however, the range of variations were clustered together in the same peaks of seasonal distribution (Table 5), indicating they represent variation within a single species. Furthermore several C . doeringae specimens collected in Grand County had smaller antennal ratios (down to 1.29), and males often had a greater aedeagal arch height (aedeagal ratio 0.59 in Fig. 84 ) than described by Atchley (1967) (~ 0.45 in text, 0.5 in his Fig. 129) for New Mexico and Arizona specimens ; and one of the two females collected in the same trap on 11 July 2019 in Summit County , despite being otherwise completely similar, had equal-sized spermathecae (1.00 versus 1.30 differential of the other specimen), indicating spermathecae may be somewhat variable . Culicoides doeringae and C. lophortygis may be conspecific. From the descriptions by Atchley (1967) and Atchley and Wirth (1975) , the following characters overlap ( C . doeringae first, C . lophortygis second): female wing length (1.13–1.34, 1.09–1.23), antennal ratio (1.48–1.73, 1.38–1.62), ratio of the lengths of flagellomeres 7+8 to flagellomere 9 (1.00–1.27, 0.97–1.15), palpal ratio (2.30–2.87, 2.82–2.88), and proboscis ratio (1.03–1.20, 0.89.–1.03). This leaves the intensity of the wing pattern (“more prominent”, “rather indistinct” [ Atchley and Wirth 1975 ]) and eye separation (“width of median hair socket” [ Atchley 1967 ], “greater than width of an ommatidial facet” [ Atchley and Wirth 1975 ]) as the only stated distinctions. However, their differing described SCo patterns (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, (10), 11–13 and 1, 3, (5), (7), 11-13) are not cited as a distinction in Atchley and Wirth (1975: 1423) . Table 16 shows the six different SCo patterns of 27 C . doeringae specimens and compares their wing pattern intensities and eye separations. These data fail to show a correlation between these characteristics—calling into question the species distinction between C . doeringae and C. lophortygis . That C. lophortygis is known to bite California valley quail ( Lophortyx californicus ) ( Atchley and Wirth 1975 ) has implications for C . doeringae being a possible vector of avian parasites.