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
(
Drymodesmyia
)
torridus
Wirth and Hubert
(
Fig. 109
, 163, 203)
Culicoides
(
Oecacta
)
torridus
Wirth and Hubert, 1960: 654
(key; numerical characters; female; male genitalia; fig. female wing, palpus, spermathecae, male genitalia, parameres;
Arizona
).
Culicoides
(
Drymodesmyia
)
torridus
:
Wirth et al. 1985: 16
(numerical characters; fig. female wing).
Wirth et al. 1988: 28
(numerical characters; fig. female wing).
Borkent and Spinelli 2000: 31
(in Neotropical catalog).
Diagnosis.
(
Tables 14
,
15
) Dark brown; wing pattern distinct; r
2
dark; distal pale spot in r
3
bilobed, divided into two distinct spots; pale spots at ~0.3 on M
1
and at ~0.5 on M
2
; one pale bilobed spot in distal half of anal cell; tips of M
1
, M
2
, sometimes CuA
1
pale; most of CuA
1
and CuA
2
within dark areas; pore of sensory pit on palpal segment 3 <0.3 the diameter of segment, widening internally (as in Fig. 248
C
.
sitiens
); tibiae without subapical pale band; spermathecae unequal by ~1.2×, ~1.1× longer than wide; ventro-posterior membrane of male sternite 9 not spiculate; ventral apodeme of gonocoxite simple; aedeagus somewhat Y-shaped, constricting at base of median process, tapering to truncate tip ~0.17 width of arm spread, aedeagal ratio 0.38 (0.33–0.41, n = 15); parameres separate, narrowest diameter of paramere before first ~90° bend in apical half
0.0032 mm
(
0.0025
–0.0037
, n = 15), apices simple pointed bent.
Distribution.
California
,
Nevada
(Clark County,
new state record
),
Arizona
(Greenlee County,
new state record
),
Baja California
,
Baja California Sur
,
San Luis Potosi
(
new state record
[
Monarch 2021
]),
Puebla
(
new state record
[
Monarch 2021
]),
Oaxaca
(
new state record
[
Monarch 2021
]). A male was collected with UVLT on
2 April 2019
at
36.14032°N
114.72704°W
and
384 m
elevation in
Nevada
; and a female and
three males
were collected with UVLT on
10 October 2019
at
32.96215°N
109.30566°W
and
1056 m
elevation in
Arizona
.
Larval ecology and adult behavior.
Culicoides torridus
has been reared from rot holes in
Pachycereus schottii
(
Ryckman 1960
)
and
Ferocactus cylindraceus
(data from slide labeled Riverside County,
California
,
9 April 1996
, collector M. Breidenbaugh). However, its adult hosts are unknown though the mandibular and lacinial teeth on the female indicate it feeds on vertebrate blood.
Remarks.
Males of
C
.
torridus
and
C
.
cacticola
can be difficult to distinguish, and there is genetic evidence that they are conspecific (Xinmi Zhang, personal communication). The
C
.
torridus
males were collected in the same traps in Clark County,
Nevada
, and Greenlee County,
Arizona
, as the
C
.
cacticola
males (
Table 9
), lending circumstantial evidence to this. See
C
.
cacticola
remarks.
Subgenus
Haematomyidium
Goeldi