Dasyhelea cincta (Coquillett)

Grogan, William L., Díaz, Florentina, Spinelli, Gustavo R. & Ronderos, Maria M., 2019, The Biting Midges of the Caribbean island Curaçao (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) I. Species in the genus Dasyhelea Kieffer, Zootaxa 4700 (3), pp. 301-325 : 305-306

Dasyhelea cincta (Coquillett)

Ceratopogon cinctus Coquillett, 1901: 605 (Florida) .

Culicoides cinctus: Kieffer 1906: 54 (combination).

Pseudoculicoides cinctus: Malloch 1915: 311 (combination).

Dasyhelea cincta: Johannsen 1943: 778 (combination); Wirth 1952: 150 (California; distribution); Wirth & Williams 1957: 9 ( Bermuda); Wirth 1965: 127 (in Nearctic catalog; distribution); Waugh & Wirth 1976: 222 (in revision of eastern USA Dasyhelea ; distribution); Davies & Giglioli 1979: 592 (Grand Cayman); Spinelli & Wirth 1984: 597 ( Jamaica, Haiti, Mexico, Panama); Huerta et al. 1999: 493 (records from Mexico); Borkent & Spinelli 2000: 25 (in New World catalog south of the USA; distribution); Borkent & Spinelli 2007: 60 (in Neotropical catalog; distribution); Borkent & Grogan 2009: 11 (in Nearctic catalog; distribution); Grogan et al. 2016: 208 ( Guadeloupe); Borkent, 2016: 63 (in online World catalog).

Dasyhelea albopicta Ingram & Macfie, 1931: 187 ( Argentina) ; Díaz et al. 2009: 150 [as synonym of D. cincta (Coquillett) ]

Dasyhelea penthesileae Macfie, 1935: 55 ( Brazil) , Spinelli, 1983: 407 (redescriptions of male, female, description of pupa; Argentina record).

Diagnosis. The only Neotropical species of the cincta group with the following combination of characters. Males with elongate, slender paramere with sharply pointed tip and the base narrowly fused to both gonocoxal apodemes; bases of gonocoxal apodemes broad, foot-shaped; and aedeagus with distal margin of hyaline envelope of aedeagus without crenulations. Females with long antennal flagellum with flagellomeres 9–13 elongate, much longer than broad; spermathecae small (48 x 42 μm), spherical to ovoid with numerous hyaline punctations and short, slender, oblique necks; and sternite 8 with heavily sclerotized distal portion that overlies the long quadrate subgenital plate which has a deep posterior excavation.

Discussion. This widespread New World species inhabits the USA from California to New York south to Florida ( Borkent & Grogan 2009), in the Caribbean region it is known from the Bahamas, Bermuda, Jamaica, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Dominica, Grenada, Guadeloupe, and from Mexico to South America in Ecuador, Trinidad, and Brazil south to Argentina ( Spinelli & Wirth 1984; Borkent & Spinelli 2000, 2007; Díaz et al. 2009; Grogan et al. 2016). We provide the first record of D. cincta from Curaçao.

Material examined. CURAÇAO, Piscadera Baai , 5-XII-2015, M. C. Thomas, Blacklight trap in mangroves, 1 male. New Curaçao record .

Grisea Group

The grisea group is equivalent to the subgenus Dasyhelea ( Dominiak 2012) , and species differ from all other groups/subgenera of Dasyhelea by their broad elliptical, bilobate or heart-shaped frontal sclerite, their antennal flagellomeres are heavily sculptured in both sexes and flagellomere 13 is elongate with a tapered slender apex. Males tergite 9 usually with long, cylindrical apicolateral processes, rarely with short, triangular apicolateral processes; sternite 9 relatively short with posterior margin concave, straight or convex; gonocoxal apodemes and paramere asymmetrical; gonocoxite often with basomesal hook or tubercle. Females subgenital plate entire and usually with triangular, arrowhead-shaped or slender distal section; and spermatheca pyriform, heavily sclerotized, and sometime with large, distinct surface punctations.