Culicoides daedalus Macfie, 1948

Phillips, Robert A., 2022, Culicoides Latreille and Leptoconops Skuse biting midges of the southwestern United States with emphasis on the Canyonlands of southeastern Utah (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae), Insecta Mundi 2022 (907), pp. 1-214 : 98

Culicoides daedalus Macfie

(Fig. 116, 195)

Culicoides daedalus Macfie, 1948: 83 (key; male; fig. wing, tergite 9, gonocoxal apodemes, paramere; Chiapas).

Culicoides (Oecacta) daedalus: Khalaf 1954: 37 (assignment to subgenus Oecacta ). Forattini 1957: 401 (key; female; male genitalia; fig. female wing, flagellomeres 8–9, palpus, male wing, genitalia, paramere; distribution map). Wirth and Blanton 1959: 319 (key; quantitative characters; female; male genitalia; fig. female wing, mesonotum, palpus, tibial comb, spermathecae, male genitalia, parameres). Wirth et al. 1985: 18 (numerical characters; fig. female wing). Wirth et al. 1988: 28 (numerical characters; fig. female wing). Borkent and Spinelli 2000: 38 (in Neotropical catalog). Huerta et al. 2012: 15 (Veracruz).

Culicoides (Beltranmyia) daedalus: Vargas 1960: 38 (assignment to subgenus Beltranmyia ).

Diagnosis. ( Tables 14, 15) Cell r 2 dark; distal pale spot in r 3 irregular, equidistant between r 2 and wing tip, quadrate to slightly C-shaped, sometimes thinly connected along posterior margin of cell with a smaller faint spot at apex of cell to form a U; M 1 dark; isolated pale spot at ~0.5 on M 2; distal pale spot in m 1 not extending to wing margin; two distal pale spots in anal cell; sensory pit on palpal segment 3 about as deep as wide, widening internally, pore ~0.3 as wide as segment (as in Fig. 249 C. hinmani ); ventral apodeme of gonocoxite simple, similar in length and breadth to dorsal apodeme; aedeagus simple, strongly Y-shaped, median process with moderately narrow nearly parallel-sided truncate tip, aedeagal ratio ~0.6; parameres separate, apical portion simple curved filiform.

Distribution. Arizona, Veracruz, Chiapas, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Columbia, Venezuela. The New Mexico distribution reported in Wirth et al. (1985), Borkent and Spinelli (2000), and Huerta et al. (2012) is doubtful. See Culicoides pampoikilus Macfie remarks.

Adult behavior. The mandibular and lacinial teeth on the female indicate it feeds on vertebrate blood; however, its hosts are unknown.

Remarks. No C. daedalus were examined.