Culicoides hoguei Wirth and Moraes

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 : 101

Culicoides hoguei Wirth and Moraes

Culicoides hoguei Wirth and Moraes, 1979: 293 (female, male; fig. female antenna, palpus, wing, eye separation, spermathecae, male genitalia, parameres, leg; California). Wirth et al. 1985: 38 (numerical characters; fig. female wing). Wirth et al. 1988: 56 (numerical characters; fig. female wing). Borkent and Spinelli 2000: 40 (in Neotropical catalog).

Culicoides mohave Wirth , misidentified: Wirth 1952a: 187 (in part).

Diagnosis. ( Tables 14, 15) Brown; wing similar to C. mohave (Fig. 131, 207), pattern faint on distal half; r 2 dark; distal pale spot in r 3 distinct, centered at ~0.6 the distance from apex of costa to apex of M 1, not extending into distal 0.2 of cell; one pale spot in distal half of anal cell; two ovoid subequal spermathecae, with necks ~2× longer than wide; sclerotized ring on spermathecal duct; male tergite 9 apicolateral processes long: their length ~0.5 the distance between them; ventral apodeme of gonocoxite with two widely divergent processes, footlike; aedeagal arms simple V-shaped, median process tapering triangular to rounded tip; paramere with bulbous submedian lobe and subapical fringe of spines.

Distribution. Coastal Southern California, Baja California, Baja California Sur.

Adult behavior. Ryckman and Ryckman (1963) reported C. hoguei biting humans, sometimes after dark and suggested C. hoguei ’s larval habitat is likely the rotting organic material on the beaches surrounding the Baja California islands where the midges were collected.

Remarks. Wirth and Moraes (1979) found some Baja California specimens to have smaller proboscis ratios and more mandibular teeth than those of the California types. I include these variations within parenthesis in Table 14; however, no C. hoguei were examined.