Culicoides (Drymodesmyia) jamaicensis Edwards

(Figs. 28)

Culicoides loughnani var. jamaicensis Edwards, 1922: 165 (Jamaica; female; fig.). Hoffman 1925: 283 (Panama record); Vargas 1945: 43 (Mexico record); Barbosa 1947: 21 (Panama, Jamaica records; fig. 27); Macfie 1948: 80 (Chiapas, Mexico; female; descriptive notes; in key); Vargas 1949a: 200 (in species list of Mexico); Fox 1949: 32 (Puerto Rico; figs.); Ortiz & Mirsa 1952b: 271 (in part, Venezuela; figs.); Forattini 1957: 412 (in part, Brazil; diagnosis; distribution; in key; fig. 93).

Culicoides jamaicensis Edwards: Wirth 1955: 112 (Guatemala record; fig.); Wirth & Blanton 1959: 339 (Panama; copiosus group; redescription; distribution; in key; figs.); Wirth & Hubert 1960: 649 (review of copiosus group; diagnosis; in key; figs.); Williams 1964: 463 (Trinidad; larvae habitat); Borkent & Wirth 1997: 71 (in world species of Ceratopogonidae).

Culicoides (Drymodesmyia) jamaicensis Edwards. Wirth 1974: 22 (in catalogue of Diptera of Americas south of the United States); Wirth & Blanton 1974: 61 (West Indian review; diagnosis; distribution; in key; figs.); Aitken et al. 1975: 131 (Trinidad record; distribution; in key; fig.); Wirth et al. 1988: 26 (wing atlas of Neotropical species; fig.); Borkent & Spinelli 2000: 30 (in catalog of new world south of the United States; distribution); Spinelli & Borkent 2004: 390 (Costa Rica records); Borkent & Spinelli 2007: 65 (in catalog of the Ceratopogonidae of the Neotropical region; distribution); Spinelli et al. 2009: 87 (Colombia records); Huerta et al. 2012: 9 (Mexico records); Spinelli & Wolff 2016: 109; (Colombia records); Santarém & Felippe-Bauer 2023: 22 (in species list of Brazil); Borkent & Dominiak 2020: 111 (in catalogue of biting midges of the world); Mendez & Ibáñez-Bernal 2023: 32 (in catalogue of Culicoides of Mexico; miscellaneous unplaced species); Bravo-Barriga et al. 2023 (taxonomic status).

Culicoides wirthomyia Vargas, 1953b: 227 (male; description; Mexico, type locality Iguala, Guerrero; figures: wing, male genitalia). NEW SYNONYM.

Material examined. Culicoides wirthomyia Vargas. HOLOTYPE male. MEXICO, Guerrero, Iguala, 14-mar-1936, lampara trampa, Ruiz-Soto, R, captura 1381, slide mounted in balsam Canada. No. CE 88213 [CAIM /Crt/Tp/lam- 00112–00113, 0048] . Paratypes 2 males, same data, except CE 88112, CE88073 .

Remarks. Our examination of the type material of Culicoides wirthomyia Vargas, represented by three slides, only allows comparison of the wing (Fig. 37) and male genitalia since the rest of the body is missing. Forattini (1957) reviewed a paratype and indicated that the specimen belongs to the genus Dasyhelea, as Dasyhelea wirthomyia (Vargas), despite that he did not indicate which of the three paratypes of the type series he examined. In the original description, Vargas (1953b) indicated that one paratype specimen was deposited in the collection of the Natural History Museum of Washington, D. C. Vargas (1960) indicated that Culicoides wirthomyia is very closely related to or identical to Culicoides jamaicensis . After the revision of the male genitalia of the three specimens of the type series of C. wirthomyia, we determined that it is conspecific with C. jamaicensis and therefore it is a junior synonym of that species.

Distribution. USA (Texas, Florida), México, Central America and Caribbean to Colombia and Venezuela.