Culicoides leechi Wirth, 1977

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 : 103-104

Culicoides leechi Wirth

Culicoides leechi Wirth, 1977: 53 (female, male; fig. female antenna, wing, palpus, eye separation, spermathecae, male antenna, palpus, parameres, genitalia; California). Wirth et al. 1985: 26 (numerical characters; fig. female wing).

Diagnosis. ( Tables 14, 15) Wing pattern reduced; r 2 dark; pale spots only at tip of costa, on r-m crossvein; spermathecae subequal with short necks; sclerotized ring absent from spermathecal duct; male antenna, palpus, and wing feminized, flagellomeres 9–10 lengthened similar to 11–13, lacking dense whorls of sensilla chaeticae on 1–10, palpal ratio ~2, with large sensory pit (as in Fig. 251 C. utahensis ); tergite 9 apicolateral processes stout, ~2× longer than wide, broadly flaring laterally at ~30°; ventral apodeme of gonocoxite simple; gonostylus about evenly curved, not abruptly bent, entire lateral contour convex; aedeagus V-shaped, median process tapering to tip ~0.3 as wide as basal arm spread; parameres separate, apices abruptly bent ventro-laterally with simple stout sharp tip.

Distribution. California (Napa, San Luis Obispo counties).

Adult behavior. The mandibular and lacinial teeth on the female indicate it feeds on vertebrate blood, and it is likely the feminization of the males facilitates finding females at a host—despite that reported C. leechi matingpair collections have only been at light ( Wirth 1977). See C. utahensis adult behavior.

Remarks. No C. leechi were examined.