Culicoides palawanensis Delfinado

Li, Jia-Hui, Gopurenko, David, Cai, Du-Cheng, Yang, Ye-Meng, Hu, Rong, Thepparat, Arunrat, Wardhana, April H., Kim, Heung-Chul, Klein, Terry A., Kim, Myung-Soon & Bellis, Glenn A., 2017, Culicoides Latreille biting midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) of the Dongzhaigang mangrove forest, Hainan Province, China, Zootaxa 4227 (1), pp. 49-60 : 53

Culicoides palawanensis Delfinado

Culicoides palawanensis Delfinado 1961: 648

Type material examined. Paratype, Philippine Islands , Palawan Prov, Culion Island, San Pedro, 26.Mar.1947, near sea level, H.Hoogrstaal, CNHM-10 (1 male, ANIC) .

Non-type material examined. People’s Republic of China, Hainan: Dongzhaigang Mangrove Reserve nursery, 19.85°N ; 110.40°E, 1m, Lt Tp, 14.Oct.2015, J-H Li & D-C Cai (4 females, 2 males); Dongzhaigang Mangrove Reserve nursery, 19.85°N ; 110.40°E, 1m, landing collection 16:15–17:15 hr, 14.Oct.2015, G. Bellis (1 female); Dongzhaigang Mangrove Reserve nursery, 19.85°N ; 110.40°E, 1m, net 16:15–17:15hr, 14.Oct.2015, J-H Li & D-C Cai (2 females). Thailand: Trang Province, Pak Maeng Beach , 7.5058°S, 99.3135°E, sweep net 18:15 pm, 16.Apr.2013, A.Thepparat (1 female, Ramkhamhaeng University Insect Collection, Bangkok, Thailand).

Diagnosis. Females: The only species in the Ornatus group with the following suite of characters: hairy eyes, SCo on basal flagellar segments, spermathecae with sclerotised necks and lacking a sclerotised spermathecal ring.

Biology. Unknown, but all collection data indicate an association with mangroves or sea shores. The specimen collected from humans suggests this species may feed on people.

Distribution. This species is known from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Sabah, Sarawak, Thailand, and the People’s Republic of China (new record).

Remarks. This species aligns with the Pictipennis section of C. Subg. Oecacta in the keys of Yu et al. (2005) and to couplet 6 in the key to the Pictipennis section. It resembles both species in that couplet, C. zhuhaiensis Yu and Hao and C. miharai Konoshita , differing mainly in the spermathecae, which in C. palawanensis has necks and lacks a sclerotized spermathecal ring, while those of C. zhuhaiensis lack spermathecal necks and C. miharai has a long sclerotized ring. Additionally, the illustration of female antennae of both C. miharai and C. zhuhaiensis in Yu et al. (2005) indicates a single SCo on flagellar segment 12 compared to the subapical ring of four to six SCo present in C. palawanensis , and indeed, other members of the Ornatus group. We have been unable to access reference material of C. miharai or C. zhuhaiensis to confirm the suite of characters that differ between these species and C. palawanensis , but in all of these characters, the Dongzhaigang material is consistent with C. palawanensis and we therefore refer our specimens to that species. Further study of these species is needed to confirm their status. Previous reports of C. zhuhaiensis from Hainan ( Wang et al. 2011) may refer to C. palawanensis and consequently require confirmation. There are no previous reported DNA barcodes for any of these species; novel DNA barcodes reported here for C. palawanensis from locations in Hainan are within a single barcode BIN: ADB6620 (Table 2) unique to the species and separated by>4.5% (D NC) sequence differences to a conspecific specimen from Thailand.