Culicoides (Drymodesmyia) butleri Wirth and Hubert

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 : 60-61

Culicoides (Drymodesmyia) butleri Wirth and Hubert

( Fig. 104, 105 , 158, 159, 198, 257)

Culicoides (Oecacta) butleri Wirth and Hubert, 1960: 650 (key; numerical characters; female; male genitalia; fig. female wing, palpus, spermathecae, male genitalia, parameres; Arizona).

Culicoides (Drymodesmyia) butleri: Wirth 1965: 130 (placement in subgenus Drymodesmyia ). Wirth et al. 1985: 14 (numerical characters; fig. female wing). Wirth et al. 1988: 24 (numerical characters; fig. female wing). Borkent and Spinelli 2000: 30 (in Neotropical catalog).

Diagnosis. ( Tables 14, 15) Dark brown; wing pattern distinct; r 2 dark; distal pale spot in r 3 bilobed and 8-shaped; pale spots at ~0.3 on M 1 and ~0.5 on M 2; two pale spots in distal half of anal cell; tips of M 1, M 2, CuA 1 pale; most of CuA 1 and CuA 2 within dark areas; pore of sensory pit on palpal segment 3 <0.3 the diameter of segment, widening internally (as in Fig. 248 C. sitiens ); combined distal five flagellomeres (including intersegmental spaces) on female distinctly shorter than combined proximal eight; pale band subapical on fore femora, basal on all tibiae; spermathecae unequal by ~1.2×,>2× longer than wide, opening ~0.3 as wide as spermatheca, without necks; ventro-posterior membrane of male sternite 9 not spiculate; ventral apodeme of gonocoxite simple; aedeagus somewhat Y-shaped, constricting at base of median process, tapering to truncated tip 0.17 (0.14–0.22) width of arm spread, aedeagal ratio 0.38–0.45 (n = 2); parameres separate, narrowest diameter of paramere before first ~90° bend in apical half 0.0031 –0.0034 mm (n = 2), apices simple pointed bent.

Distribution. Arizona, Texas ( Vigil et al. 2014), Nuevo León, Trinidad ( Wirth and Hubert 1960).

Larval ecology and adult behavior. Culicoides butleri ’s larval habitat is unknown; however, like other Drymodesmyia , its larval habitat is likely the abundant cholla ( Cylindropuntia [Engelmann] F. M. Knuth, Cactaceae ) and barrel cactus ( Ferocactus Britton and Rose , Cactaceae ) at the Greenlee County, Arizona, collection site. Also, its adult hosts are unknown, though the mandibular and lacinial teeth on the female indicate it feeds on vertebrate blood.

Atypical biology. One female, collected with UVLT in Greenlee County, Arizona, had three fully developed spermathecae with a vestigial fourth, instead of two with a vestigial third ( Table 12).

Remarks. The height of the aedeagal arch of the male collected in Greenlee County, Arizona, ( Fig. 104 ) more closely matches the description of Wirth and Hubert (1960) but is somewhat different from the specimen identified by W. W. Wirth from Gila County, Arizona ( Fig. 105 ); so, genitalia and wing images (Fig. 158, 159) are included for both specimens.

Figures

Figures 104–109. Male genitalia of Culicoides subgenus Drymodesmyia, ventral view. 104) C. butleri (Greenlee County, AZ). 105) C. butleri (Gila County, AZ [FSCA]). 106) C. cacticola, bottom of basal arch of aedeagus delineated (San Diego County, CA [BM]). 107) C. jonesi (Greenlee County, AZ). 108) C. sitiens. 109) C. torridus, height (h) of basal arch of aedeagus indicated (San Diego County, CA [BM]).