Culicoides (Avaritia) chiopterus (Meigen)

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 : 47-48

Culicoides (Avaritia) chiopterus (Meigen)

( Fig. 64 , 176)

Because the conspecificity of the Palearctic C. chiopterus with Nearctic C. chiopterus is in question ( Meiswinkel et al. 2004), only the Nearctic and limited Palearctic data and references are presented.

Ceratopogon chiopterus Meigen, 1830: 263 (Europe) .

Culicoides chiopterus (Meigen) : Root and Hoffman 1937: 156 (key; male wing; fig. male genitalia; Maryland). Edwards et al. 1939: 45, 143 (biology; male genitalia, fig.; Britain). Foote and Pratt 1954: 18 (key; diagnosis; fig. male genitalia).

Culicoides (Culicoides) chiopterus: Khalaf 1954: 39 (assignment to subgenus Culicoides ).

Culicoides (Avaritia) chiopterus: Fox 1955: 231 (assignment to subgenus Avaritia ; key and diagnoses of subgenera; species diagnosis; taxonomy). Jamnback and Wirth 1963: 187 (key; female, male, pupa, larva; fig. female head, mandibular teeth, palpus, eye separation, male genitalia, male pupa, female pupa, larva). Jamnback 1965: 50 (key; female; male genitalia; pupa, larva; biology; fig. male genitalia, female wing, antenna, palpus, eye, pupa, larva). Khalaf 1969: 1160 (female, male). Jorgensen 1969: 13 (key; male genitalia; fig. male genitalia, parameres). Battle and Turner 1971: 32 (female; male genitalia; larval habitats; feeding habits; seasonal distribution; fig. female eye separation, palpus, wing, spermathecae, male genitalia, parameres). Blanton and Wirth 1979: 72 (key; numerical characters; female; male genitalia; pupa, larva; fig. female antenna, palpus, wing, eye separation, spermathecae, leg, male genitalia, parameres; larval habitat; feeding habits; seasonal distribution). Wirth et al. 1985: 12 (numerical characters; fig. female wing). Murphree and Mullen 1991: 317 (key; larva; numerical characters; fig. thorax, epipharynx, hypostoma, mandible). Borkent 2014: 24 (key to genera of pupae of Ceratopogonidae ; fig. pupal dorsal apotome, respiratory organ). Mathieu et al. 2020: 10 (phylogenetic analysis of subgenus Avaritia showing C. chiopterus in Obsoletus group).

Ceratopogon amoenus Winnertz, 1852: 35 (male; fig. wing; Germany).

Culicoides dobyi Callot and Kremer, 1969: 610 ( France) .

Diagnosis. ( Tables 14, 15) Wing pattern faint on distal third; pale spot over distal half of r 2; eyes contiguous, often with interommatidial pubescence; superior transverse suture absent; palpal segment 3 with sensory pit; two ovoid subequal spermathecae with necks and vestigial spermatheca; posterior margin of male sternite 9 with broad concave caudomedian excavation; posterior margin of male tergite 9 concave with short blunt apicolateral processes; ventral apodeme of gonocoxite simple, ~2× longer than dorsal apodeme, slender, ~7× longer than basal width; aedeagus V-shaped, with sclerotized membrane between arms and a sclerotized anteriordirected point at base of median process; aedeagal ratio ~0.4; parameres separate, apices simple curved pointed hooks.

Distribution. Holarctic, temperate North America, Eurasia. Culicoides chiopterus was not collected. Distribution and habitat records indicate it prefers cooler and more humid forested and agricultural environments than were sampled ( Sprygin 2014). Blanton and Wirth (1979: 74) on their C. chiopterus distribution map show it present in every state and province north of the Mexico border, but nowhere south—a distribution I think unlikely. Furthermore, the only collection record I have found for C. chiopterus from western North America is a female collected 11 July 1960 in Ocean Falls, British Columbia, and misidentified as C. obsoletus ; thus, it may not be present in the western United States.

Larval ecology. Culicoides chiopterus has been reared from humus polluted with chicken or horse manure ( Jamnback and Wirth 1963), moist straw, and moist soil mixed with chicken manure ( Jamnback 1965).

Adult behavior. Known Nearctic hosts are poultry ( Humphreys and Turner 1973) and human ( Blanton and Wirth 1979). Palearctic hosts include cattle ( Bos taurus Linnaeus , Bovidae ) ( Ninio et al. 2011; Garros et al. 2011; Lassen et al. 2012; Elbers and Meiswinkel 2015), roe deer ( Capreolus capreolus [Linnaeus], Cervidae ) ( Lassen et al. 2012), horses, and sheep ( Elbers and Meiswinkel 2015). Its proclivity for bovid hosts, along with the molecular detection of bluetongue virus (BTV) in C. chiopterus , has implicated it as a probable vector of bluetongue virus (BTV) in Europe ( Dijkstra et al. 2008; Foxi et al. 2016).

Symbionts. Möhlmann (2019) found wild-collected C. chiopterus in Europe to be infected with Wolbachia , an endosymbiont that can alter dipteran reproduction by killing male embryos, inducing gamete incompatibility, or feminizing genetic males ( Stouthamer 1999).

Figures

Figures 63–65. Male genitalia of Culicoides subgenus Avaritia, ventral view. Upper images focused on aedeagus (A). Lower insets focused on caudal margin of tergite 9. Ventral apodeme of gonocoxite labeled (Gcva). Anteriordirected median process of aedeagus circled. 63) C. boydi (Riverside County, CA [BM]). 64) C. chiopterus (MD [FSCA]). 65) C. obsoletus (MD [FSCA]).