Culicoides werneri Wirth and Blanton

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 : 115

Culicoides werneri Wirth and Blanton

( Fig. 42 )

Culicoides werneri Wirth and Blanton, 1971: 46 (key; female, male; fig. female antenna, palpus, eye separation, hind tibial comb, wing, spermathecae, legs, male genitalia, parameres; Arizona). Jones and Wirth 1978: 57 (key). Wirth et al. 1985: 36 (numerical characters; fig. female wing). Borkent and Spinelli 2000: 42 (in Neotropical catalog).

Diagnosis. ( Tables 14, 15, 17) Dark brown; wing without pattern of pale spots (as in Fig. 3 C . stonei); legs brown; two unequal sclerotized ovoid spermathecae and fingerlike vestigial third (as in Fig. 45 C . stonei); posterior portion of female sternite 8 cleft, with blunt submedian posterior projections (as in Fig. 45 C . stonei); ventroposterior membrane of male sternite 9 spiculate; aedeagus Y-shaped, median process stout, short, truncate, half as long as basal arms; parameres separate, simple, apex curved hooklike.

Distribution. California, Arizona, Texas, Sonora.

Adult behavior. A female has been collected from a jackrabbit ( Wirth and Blanton 1971).

Remarks. The specimens I collected in Greenlee County, Arizona, have 1, 8–12 and 1, (5), 8–12 SCo patterns. See also Stonei group discussion.

Unplaced species

Figures

Figures 41–45. Male genitalia of Culicoides, ventral view, gonocoxite (Gc), gonostylus (Gs), paramere (P), aedeagus (A), apicolateral processes of tergite 9 (T9alp), sternite 9 (S9). 41) C. mortivallis. 42) C. werneri (paratype, Pima County, AZ [FSCA]). 43) C. bottimeri. Spermathecae, rudimentary third spermatheca (rsp), sternite 8 (S8), sternite 9 (S9). 44) C. bottimeri. 45) C. stonei.

Figures 3–8. Female wings with cells (lower case) and veins (upper case) labeled. 3) Culicoides stonei. 4) C. atchleyi (Bonneville County, ID). 5) Leptoconops torrens. Female abdomen, ventral view. 6) L. torrens. 7) C. stonei. 8) L. californiensis, dorsal habitus (in alcohol, Yuma County, AZ [Carl Olson, with permission]).