Leptoconops (Leptoconops) mohavensis Wirth and Atchley

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 : 27-28

Leptoconops (Leptoconops) mohavensis Wirth and Atchley

Leptoconops (Leptoconops) mohavensis Wirth and Atchley, 1973: 29 (male; fig. male genitalia, hind tibial comb, tarsomere 5, antenna; California).

Diagnosis. ( Table 13) Female unknown. Male brownish black, legs dark brown; eyes bare; palpal segment 3 sensilla in superficial excavation wider than deep; hind tibial comb with four spines; flagellomere 13 ~2.2× longer than 12; tergite 9 evenly tapering to base of stout widely separated apicolateral processes, which are 2–3× longer

than wide and separated by a distance about equal to their length; aedeagal sclerites separate, apically pointed; distal sclerite of paramere ~6× longer than wide, apical portion bent ~90° meso-ventrally.

Distribution. The only record of this species is of three males collected with “suction trap” at Needles, San Bernardino County, California, 19 May 1965 by M. S. Mulla. Its collection in the Mojave Desert along the Colorado River at 150 m elevation indicates it may also occur in the lower and warmer areas of Arizona and Utah.

Biology. No other data are available.

Remarks. No L. mohavensis were examined; see L. torrens remarks.