Culicoides (Diphaomyia) baueri Hoffman, 1925

Huerta, Rodríguez, Ana M., William L. Grogan, Jr. & Ibáñez-Bernal, Sergio, 2012, New records of biting midges of the genus Culicoides Latreille from Mexico (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae), Insecta Mundi 2012 (211), pp. 1-20 : 2-3

Culicoides (Diphaomyia) baueri Hoffman

Culicoides baueri Hoffman, 1925: 297 (Maryland, USA).

Culicoides (Diphaomyia) baueri: Vargas 1960: 40 (as type species of subgenus Diphaomyia ).

Culicoides (Diphaeomyia) haematopotus: Blanton and Wirth 1979: 61 (subgenus sic; Florida records; distribution).

Discussion. This species was previously known only from the USA in Colorado, Maryland and Tennessee south to Louisiana and Florida ( Borkent and Grogan 2009). Only two species in the subgenus Diphaomyia Vargas were previously known from Mexico, C. blantoni Vargas and Wirth and C. haematopotus Malloch. However, Root and Hoffman (1937) mentioned specimens of C. baueri from Distrito Federal, Mexico in the collection of Alfonso Dampf. Vargas (1945) also included Mexican records of C. baueri from Guerrero and Tamaulipas. In his Neotropical catalog, Wirth (1974) refers to erroneous identifications of C. baueri by Ortiz and Mirsa (1951) and Forattini (1957), and indicated that these were probably specimens of C. iriartei Fox.

During our examination of material in CAIM, we compared specimens of C. baueri with specimens of C. blantoni , C. haematopotus , C. iriartei and other species in the subgenus Diphaomyia . Culicoides baueri differs from C. blantoni and C. haematopotus by its wing pattern that features a pale line bordering the anterior side of M 1 just below the poststigmatic pale spot in cell r 3. We identified males of C. baueri collected in Puebla, Mexico based on the descriptions and illustrations in Blanton and Wirth (1979) and by comparing them with other specimens of this species from the USA. However, we were unable to confirm earlier records of C. baueri from Mexico by Vargas (1945), because his material was not found in the CAIM collection.

New records. Puebla, Atlixco, Metepec, Cañada, 29 November 1993, F. Castro, colecta directa, en madriguera cerca de un río, en reposo, 4 males. New country record.