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 ( Diphaomyia ) inyoensis Wirth and Blanton ( Fig. 75 , 128, 211, 212) Culicoides ( Diphaomyia ) inyoensis Wirth and Blanton, 1969a: 565 (female, male; fig. female antenna, palpus, wing, eye separation, spermathecae, leg, male genitalia, parameres; California ). Atchley and Wirth 1979: 541 (key; numerical characters; female; male genitalia; fig. female antenna, palpus, wing, eye separation, spermathecae, leg, male genitalia, parameres). Wirth et al. 1985: 18 (numerical characters; fig. female wing). Diagnosis. ( Tables 14 , 15 ) Wing pattern extensive; r 2 dark; large distal pale spots in r 3 , m 1 , m 2 , cua 1 , but may be diffuse and indistinct; distal pale spot in r 3 centered at ~0.7 the distance from apex of costa to apex of M 1 , extending into distal 0.1 of cell; M 1 dark; pale spot barely on M 2 at ~0.4, spreading anterior into m 1 ; spermathecae subequal, with sclerotized necks; ventral apodeme of gonocoxite with two widely divergent processes, footlike; basal arms of aedeagus each with spurlike process on posterior margin, median process of aedeagus slightly tapering to blunt tip, aedeagal ratio ~0.5; parameres separate, each with bulbous submedian lobe and subapical fringe of spines. Distribution. California , Utah (Garfield, Grand counties). Adult behavior. The mandibular and lacinial teeth on the female indicate it feeds on vertebrate blood; and though its hosts are unknown, the SCo presence on only the proximal flagellomeres suggests it is mammalophilic. Symbionts. Male and female C . inyoensis were parasitized by larval mites ( Table 10 ), which species may indicate its pupal habitat or oviposition site. Remarks. Wirth and Blanton (1969a) discuss C . inyoensis ’ similarity to Culicoides mohave Wirth , which have similar wing and SCo patterns. In the present study, I identified a female C . inyoensis collected by J. N. Belkin from Saratoga Spring, Death Valley, San Bernardino County, California , 30 May 1953 , that had been misidentified as C . mohave . It seems likely other specimens identified as C . mohave before C . inyoensis ’ 1969 description are also misidentified. The C . inyoensis type series was collected from Resting Springs, Inyo County, California , 29–30 May 1955 , along with several C . mohave . Saratoga Spring is only 32 km away from and ~ 465 m lower than Resting Springs; thus, their habitats overlap in the Mojave Desert environment, with C . inyoensis ranging more northern into the Canyonlands of Utah and C . mohave more southern into the Sonoran Desert of Baja California .