Culicoides (Silvicola) saltonensis Wirth, 1952

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 : 94-95

Culicoides (Silvicola) saltonensis Wirth

( Fig. 71 , 124 , 183)

Culicoides cockerellii saltonensis Wirth, 1952a: 173 (key; female, male; fig. female palpus, male genitalia; California).

Culicoides (Culicoides) cockerellii saltonensis: Khalaf 1954: 39 (assignment to subgenus Culicoides ). Fox 1955: 232 (key and diagnoses of subgenera; species key; taxonomy).

Culicoides (Culicoides) saltonensis Wirth, 1965: 128 (status). Wirth and Blanton 1969b: 231 (key; numerical characters; female, male; fig. female antenna, palpus, wing, eye separation, spermathecae, male genitalia, parameres). Wirth et al. 1985: 10 (numerical characters; fig. female wing).

Culicoides (Silvicola) saltonensis: Mirzaeva and Isaev 1990: 156 in English translation (as part of Cockerellii group, assignment to new subgenus Silvicola ).

Diagnosis. ( Tables 14, 15) Wing pattern extensive, with distinct distal stripes and pale spots; pale spot over at least distal half of r 2; cua 1 without central dark spot; dark spot in distal half of r 3 barely medially constricted; eyes contiguous for ~1 ommatidium diameter; superior transverse suture distinct to barely discernable; palpal segment 3 ratio 2.2, with wide area of scattered sensilla; scutum without pattern; tibiae without pale bands; fore and hind tarsomeres without apical spines; spermathecae subequal; male tergite 9 apicolateral processes tiny or absent; ventral apodeme of gonocoxite shorter than dorsal apodeme, strongly tapered, pointed, 1–2× as long as basal width; gonocoxite with stout black spinose setae on mesal surface; aedeagus V-shaped, median process triangular, tapering to broad blunt tip, aedeagal ratio ~0.5; parameres separate, apices slender, with fringe of tiny hairs at tip.

Distribution. Known only from the low deserts of Southern California and southern Nevada (Clark County, new state record). Six females were collected with UVLT on 2 April 2019 at 36.14032°N 114.72704°W and 384 m elevation in Nevada.

Adult behavior and atypical biology. Along with a normal male C. saltonensis , a female collected “near mud from saline thermal springs” in Imperial County, California, by John Einmo, had two fully developed and one half-size, but apparently functional, spermathecae instead of two with a vestigial third ( Table 12). However, little else is known about the biology of this species other than that the mandibular and lacinial teeth on the female indicate it feeds on vertebrate blood.

Remarks. Contrasting with Wirth and Blanton’s (1969b) statement that C. saltonensis has contiguous eyes and SCo only on flagellomeres 1 and 9–13, five of the six female specimens I collected in Nevada had SCo irregularly on flagellomeres 5, 7, and 8, in addition to 1, 9–13, and two had narrowly separated eyes—good examples of how variable some important diagnostic characters can be.

Figures

Figures 66–72. Male genitalia of Culicoides subgenus Silvicola, ventral view. 66) C. cockerellii (Bonneville County, ID). 67) C. freeborni (San Diego County, CA [BM]). 68) C. lahontan. 69) C. neofagineus (paratype, Mendocino County, CA [FSCA]). 70) C. neomontanus, basal and apical tips of aedeagus triangulated. 71) C. saltonensis (Imperial County, CA [FSCA]). 72) C. sierrensis (paratype, Modoc County, CA [FSCA]).

Figures 117–125. Male wings of Culicoides subgenera Avaritia and Silvicola. 117) C. boydi (in grayscale) (Riverside County, CA [BM]). 118) C. obsoletus (MD [FSCA]). 119) C. cockerellii (Bonneville County, ID). 120) C. freeborni (San Diego County, CA [BM]). 121) C. lahontan. 122) C. neofagineus (in grayscale) (paratype, Mendocino County, CA [FSCA]). 123) C. neomontanus. 124) C. saltonensis (Imperial County, CA [FSCA]). 125) C. sierrensis (paratype, Modoc County, CA [FSCA]).