Culicoides niphanae Wirth and Hubert

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 : 53-54

Culicoides niphanae Wirth and Hubert

(Fig. 3)

Culicoides niphanae Wirth and Hubert 1989:316

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 (2 females).

Diagnosis. Females: The only species in the Ornatus group with the following suite of characters: bare eyes, SCo distribution 1–12, spermathecae with long, straight necks and a sclerotized spermathecal ring.

Biology. Unknown, but all collection data indicate an association with mangroves or sea shores.

Distribution. This species is known from Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Borneo (Sabah, Sarawak), 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 40 in the key to the Pictipennis section but does not match either of the species ( C. corti Causey or C. fukiensis ) at that couplet. Of the species listed in the Pictipennis section, subgenus Oecacta , reported from China by Yu et al. (2005) that have a wing pattern similar to C. niphanae , all but one bear SCo on segment 13 which is inconsistent with C. niphanae . The remaining species, C. distinctus Sen & Das Gupta , has a SCo distribution of 1,5–8, which is inconsistent with C. niphanae .

Our two female Dongzhaigang specimens run cleanly to C. niphanae in the key of Wirth & Hubert (1989) and match their description of this species, although appear to lack a sclerotized ring on the spermathecal duct which should be present in this species. Until further material is available to confirm the absence of this ring, we refer these specimens to C. niphanae . DNA barcodes of two Dongzhaigang specimens were allocated to a novel DNA barcode BIN:ADB6248 (Table 2). No prior DNA barcode records are available for this species, which differed by>10.7 % (D NC) to the nearest congeneric.