Culicoides (Diphaomyia) defoliarti Atchley and Wirth

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 : 54-55

Culicoides (Diphaomyia) defoliarti Atchley and Wirth

( Fig. 73, 74 , 126, 127, 204)

Culicoides (Diphaomyia) defoliarti Atchley and Wirth, 1979: 527 (key; numerical characters; female; male genitalia; pupa; fig. female antenna, palpus, wing, mesonotum, eye separation, spermathecae, male genitalia, parameres; Arizona). Wirth et al. 1985: 18 (numerical characters; fig. female wing).

Culicoides haematopotus Malloch , misidentified: Wirth 1952a: 182 (in part; key; female; male genitalia; distribution; fig. dorsal thoracic pattern, female palpus, wing). Jones 1961a: 739 (in part from Utah specimens; key; pupa; fig. respiratory trumpet, operculum, chaetotaxy, anal segment). Atchley 1967: 987 (in part; key; numerical characters; female; male genitalia; variation; fig. female wing, palpus, tibial comb, spermathecae, male genitalia, parameres).

Diagnosis. ( Tables 14, 15) Wing pattern distinct; r 2 dark; isolated pale spots straddling at ~0.3 on M 1 and ~0.5 on M 2; r 3 mostly dark with distal pale spot small and entirely within distal 0.2 of cell and often not reaching wing margin; pale areas anterior along CuA broken by dark areas at base and after midpoint; spermathecae unequal by ~1.2, sclerotized necks>2× longer than wide; ventral apodeme of gonocoxite with two widely divergent processes, footlike; basal arms of aedeagus each with spurlike process on posterior margin, median process of aedeagus narrow parallel-sided, aedeagal ratio ~0.5; parameres separate, each with bulbous submedian lobe and subapical fringe of spines.

Distribution. Oregon, Utah (Garfield, Grand, San Juan, Uintah counties), Wyoming, Colorado (Montrose County, new state record), California, Arizona, New Mexico. McMullen (1978) reports “ Culicoides near haematopotus “ from British Columbia, which may be for C. defoliarti . The Colorado record is of one female collected with UVLT on 30 July 2020 at 38.32234°W and 108.18359°W and 2934 m elevation on the Uncompahgre Plateau.

Larval ecology. Wirth reared immatures collected from a seepage area below a dam in Arizona ( Atchley and Wirth 1979). Jones (1961b) collected pupae (as C. haematopotus ; may be C. defoliarti ) from two Utah sites: the nonvegetated sunlit margin of an alkaline stream near Cisco (47 km north-northeast of Moab), Grand County, along with immatures of a Stonei group species (as C. stonei ), C. occidentalis or C. sonorensis (as C. variipennis australis ), C. jamesi , C. grandensis (as “n. sp.”), and C. crepuscularis ; and a freshwater seep in Garfield County, along with C. sonorensis (as C. variipennis ) and C. jamesi .

Adult behavior. The mandibular and lacinial teeth on the female and collection in CO 2 -baited traps indicate it feeds on vertebrate blood; however, its hosts are unknown.

Symbionts. Female C. defoliarti and indeterminate male C. defoliarti - haematopotus were parasitized by larval mites ( Table 10). Ten indeterminate C. defoliarti - haematopotus intersex specimens were also collected: one apparently unparasitized, eight parasitized by mermithid nematodes, and one parasitized by a mermithid nematode and a mite ( Table 11). Atchley (1967) collected a possible C. defoliarti (as C. haematopotus ) intersex in New Mexico; however, he did not say if it was parasitized.

Remarks. The SCo patterns on the feminized antennae of the nine parasitized intersex C. defoliarti - haematopotus specimens fell into two distinct groups: 1, 8–13 (n = 5) and 1, 11–13 (n = 4). These patterns are the same as for normal C. defoliarti females and normal indeterminate C. defoliarti - haematopotus males, respectively; however, mandibular teeth were absent from four of the 8–13 set and present on three of the 11–13 set, which were opposite of expectation based on sex.

Only a portion of the ~5580 C. defoliarti and C. haematopotus collected was closely examined. Of 1188 specimens tentatively identified by wing pattern in alcohol, 22% seemed to be C. defoliarti . However, when 38 females were slide-mounted and identified by antennal ratio and SCo pattern, 11 (29%) had been misidentified, indicating that distinguishing these species in alcohol was not reliable. Thus, these species are combined as “ defoliarti - haematopotus ” in the trap comparison and seasonal distribution Tables 4 and 5. These species are differentiated in the other tables only if the females were slide-mounted and positively identified and the males were associated with these positively identified females.

Figures

Figures 73–78. Male genitalia of Culicoides subgenus Diphaomyia, ventral view. 73) C. defoliarti-haematopotus, focused on aedeagus (A), paramere (P). 74) C. defoliarti-haematopotus, focused on ventral apodemes of gonocoxites (Gcva) and median lobes on parameres (Pml). 75) C. inyoensis, posterior projections on basal arms of aedeagus circled.76) C. erikae, median lobes on parameres circled.77) C. salihi, focused on aedeagus and parameres, posterior projections on basal arms of aedeagus (App). 78) C. salihi, focused on posterior portion of ventral apodemes of gonocoxites, circled.