Culicoides (Selfia) tenuistylus Wirth, 1970

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 : 84

Culicoides (Selfia) tenuistylus Wirth

( Fig. 40 )

Culicoides tenuistylus Wirth, 1952a: 178 (female; male genitalia; fig. female palpus, male genitalia; California).

Culicoides (Selfia) tenuistylus: Khalaf 1954: 38 (assignment to subgenus Selfia ). Atchley 1970: 263 (key; female, male, pupa, larva; 19 fig.). Wirth et al. 1985: 34 (numerical characters; fig. female wing). Murphree and Mullen 1991: 365 (key; larva; numerical characters; fig. epipharynx).

Diagnosis. ( Tables 14, 15) Brown; wing without pattern of pale spots; three unsclerotized or faintly sclerotized long fingerlike spermathecae; male scutellum with six setae; hind tarsomeres with apical spines; posterior margin of male sternite 9 nearly straight, without caudomedial lobes; gonocoxite slightly tapering, not basally expanded or bent; posterior portion of gonocoxal apodeme with tiny coarse fingerlike processes on mesal surface and a spinelike process at base; apex of gonostylus rounded blunt clublike, without tooth; aedeagus Y-shaped, with moderately sclerotized median cross-bar connecting the heavily sclerotized basal arms; parameres fused, little longer than wide, with broad tapering blunt triangular median process.

Distribution. California. Cole and Schlinger (1969) report C. tenuistylus from Arizona and New Mexico; however, because the closely similar C. jacksoni —which has an Arizona and New Mexico distribution—was described later by Atchley (1970), these may be misidentifications.

Larval ecology and adult behavior. Immatures have been reared from a sandy stream margin in Mendocino County, California; and females have been collected from the ears of deer and from jackrabbits ( Atchley 1970). Furthermore, Weinmann et al. (1979) collected blood-engorged C. tenuistylus from California quail ( Callipepla californica )-baited traps; however, they found no C. tenuistylus infected with quail heartworm ( Splendidofilaria californiensis ) or other evidence it can transmit the parasite.

Subgenus Sensiculicoides Shevchenko

Figures

Figures 37–40. Male genitalia of Culicoides, ventral view focused on aedeagus. 37) C. hieroglyphicus, basal arms of aedeagus (Aa), tip of median process of aedeagus (At), gonostylus (Gs), sternite 9 caudal lobes (S9cl). 38) C. jamesi. 39) C. jacksoni, paramere shoulder (Ps), apodeme of gonocoxite (Gca) tooth (t), tip of median process of paramere (Pt). 40) C. tenuistylus, parameres (P) (Ventura County, CA).