Culicoides (Drymodesmyia) torridus Wirth and Hubert

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 : 66-67

Culicoides (Drymodesmyia) torridus Wirth and Hubert

( Fig. 109 , 163, 203)

Culicoides (Oecacta) torridus Wirth and Hubert, 1960: 654 (key; numerical characters; female; male genitalia; fig. female wing, palpus, spermathecae, male genitalia, parameres; Arizona).

Culicoides (Drymodesmyia) torridus: Wirth et al. 1985: 16 (numerical characters; fig. female wing). Wirth et al. 1988: 28 (numerical characters; fig. female wing). Borkent and Spinelli 2000: 31 (in Neotropical catalog).

Diagnosis. ( Tables 14, 15) Dark brown; wing pattern distinct; r 2 dark; distal pale spot in r 3 bilobed, divided into two distinct spots; pale spots at ~0.3 on M 1 and at ~0.5 on M 2; one pale bilobed spot in distal half of anal cell; tips of M 1, M 2, sometimes CuA 1 pale; most of CuA 1 and CuA 2 within dark areas; pore of sensory pit on palpal segment 3 <0.3 the diameter of segment, widening internally (as in Fig. 248 C. sitiens ); tibiae without subapical pale band; spermathecae unequal by ~1.2×, ~1.1× longer than wide; ventro-posterior membrane of male sternite 9 not spiculate; ventral apodeme of gonocoxite simple; aedeagus somewhat Y-shaped, constricting at base of median process, tapering to truncate tip ~0.17 width of arm spread, aedeagal ratio 0.38 (0.33–0.41, n = 15); parameres separate, narrowest diameter of paramere before first ~90° bend in apical half 0.0032 mm (0.0025 –0.0037, n = 15), apices simple pointed bent.

Distribution. California, Nevada (Clark County, new state record), Arizona (Greenlee County, new state record), Baja California, Baja California Sur, San Luis Potosi (new state record [ Monarch 2021]), Puebla (new state record [ Monarch 2021]), Oaxaca (new state record [ Monarch 2021]). A male was collected with UVLT on 2 April 2019 at 36.14032°N 114.72704°W and 384 m elevation in Nevada; and a female and three males were collected with UVLT on 10 October 2019 at 32.96215°N 109.30566°W and 1056 m elevation in Arizona.

Larval ecology and adult behavior. Culicoides torridus has been reared from rot holes in Pachycereus schottii ( Ryckman 1960) and Ferocactus cylindraceus (data from slide labeled Riverside County, California, 9 April 1996, collector M. Breidenbaugh). However, its adult hosts are unknown though the mandibular and lacinial teeth on the female indicate it feeds on vertebrate blood.

Remarks. Males of C. torridus and C. cacticola can be difficult to distinguish, and there is genetic evidence that they are conspecific (Xinmi Zhang, personal communication). The C. torridus males were collected in the same traps in Clark County, Nevada, and Greenlee County, Arizona, as the C. cacticola males ( Table 9), lending circumstantial evidence to this. See C. cacticola remarks.

Subgenus Haematomyidium Goeldi

Figures

Figures 104–109. Male genitalia of Culicoides subgenus Drymodesmyia, ventral view. 104) C. butleri (Greenlee County, AZ). 105) C. butleri (Gila County, AZ [FSCA]). 106) C. cacticola, bottom of basal arch of aedeagus delineated (San Diego County, CA [BM]). 107) C. jonesi (Greenlee County, AZ). 108) C. sitiens. 109) C. torridus, height (h) of basal arch of aedeagus indicated (San Diego County, CA [BM]).