Leptoconops (Holoconops) belkini 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 : 18-19

Leptoconops (Holoconops) belkini Wirth and Atchley

( Fig. 15 )

Leptoconops (Holoconops) belkini Wirth and Atchley, 1973: 37 (key; female, male; fig. female head, wing, hind tibial comb, genitalia, hind tarsomere 5, palpus, male genitalia, antenna; California).

Diagnosis. ( Table 13) Entirely dark brown to black; stigma pale, often indistinct; eyes bare; palpal segment 3 sensory pit as deep as wide, broadening internally on female (as in Fig. 32 L . foulki); hind tibial comb with four spines; claw without basal tooth. Female: antenna with 11 flagellomeres; clypeus with four setae, median pair about as far apart from each other as from corresponding lateral setae; hind tarsomere 3 ~1.5× longer than 5; two ovoid spermathecae, vestigial third absent; cerci>3× longer than wide (as in Fig. 1 ). Male: tergite 9 with distal shoulders abruptly narrowed to base of adjacent apicolateral processes; aedeagal sclerites longer than any paramere sclerite,>0.3 as long as gonocoxite; strongly sclerotized lobe in median portion of tergite 9 dorsal to aedeagus.

Distribution. California, Arizona.

Adult behavior. Females and males have been collected on the face of and swarming around a human, but not biting ( Wirth and Atchley 1973); and Mullens and Dada (1992a) collected L. belkini from domestic rabbit ( Oryctolagus cuniculus ), Japanese quail ( Coturnix japonica ), and bighorn sheep ( Ovis canadensis nelsoni Merriam , Bovidae ).

Figures

Figures 9–15. 9) Leptoconops americanus female clypeus, setae (s). 10) L. knowltoni female clypeus. 11) L. knowltoni female palpal segment 3. 12) L. carteri female palpal segment 3 (Yolo County, CA). 13) L. werneri female tarsomeres 4–5 and claw (paratype, Imperial County, CA [UCRC]). 14) L. werneri male genitalia, ventral view, tergite 9 apicolateral processes (T9alp), meso-posterior lobe setae (s) (Riverside County, CA [UCRC]). 15) L. belkini male genitalia, ventral view, tergite 9 sclerotized lobe (L) (Riverside County, CA [UCRC]).

Figures 27–32. Female Leptoconops. 27) L. knowltoni flagellomeres 9–11, median black seta (s). Spermathecae (sp), diverticulum (d), neck (spn). 28) L. foulki. 29) L. americanus. 30) L. sublettei flagellomeres 3–6, flagellomere 4 seta bases (sb), hyaline sensory seta (hss). Palpal segment 3. 31) L. sublettei. 32) L. foulki.

Figures 1–2. Female lateral habitus (in alcohol). 1) Leptoconops (Holoconops) Kerteszi group. 2) Culicoides (Monoculicoides) sonorensis.