Culicoides (Sinocoides) jiangchengensis Wang et Liu, 2023

He, Yuwen, Meng, Jinxin, Li, Nan, Li, Zhao, Yu, Taoying, Zhang, Laxi, Wang, Dongmei, Liu, Guoping & Wang, Jinglin, 2023, Culicoides jiangchengensis, a new species of the subgenus Sinocoides (Diptera, Ceratopogonidae) based on integrative taxonomy from China, PLoS ONE (e 0287266) 18 (7), pp. 1-18 : 3-5

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.1371/journal.pone.0287266
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14368662
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/A16A394F-603E-FFDE-FD8F-FD51EE284B27
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Culicoides (Sinocoides) jiangchengensis Wang et Liu
status	sp. nov.

Treatment

Culicoides (Sinocoides) jiangchengensis Wang et Liu View in CoL sp. Nov, 2023.

( Fig 1 View Fig 1 ). urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:C059685C-7A56-4CD2-9A67-946CF68C2A67

Diagnosis. Females: only for Culicoides species with the following combination of features: palpus third segment slightly swollen at distal 1/3, without sensory pit, with sensilla scattered on the surface; a small, approximately oval, fuzzy pale spot at the distal end of r 5 cell; m 1 with two pale spots, anal cell with a wide pale band extended from its base to distal; three equally sized spermathecae. Male: only for Culicoides species in Yunnan with the following combination of features: palpus third segment without sensory pit; anal cell with a big, long irregular pale spot shaped like a pocket; the arch of aedeagus with deep bow type, the middle of aedeagus reflexed in apex, parameres separate, the apex part bends in a hook shape.

Description

Female. Body ( Fig 1A View Fig 1 ) Small and medium-sized midges. Wing length 1.08 (1.0–1.22) mm, breadth 0.48 mm, CR 0.50 (0.48–0.53, n = 9).

Head ( Fig 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F and 1G View Fig 1 ) Brown. Eyes bare, separated by distance approximately equal to the diameter of one ommatidium, and a transverse seam in the lower forehead. Antenna pedicel slightly pale brown; flagellomeres 1–8 short and stout, flagellomeres 9–13 longer, lengths of flagellomeres in the proportion of 19:19:19:19:19:19:18:19:26:28:34:35:55; AR 1.13 (1.08–1.18, n = 9); sensilla coeloconica on flagellomere 1, 9–13. Palpus five-segmented, lengths in the proportion of 10:20:22:12:13, segment 3 slightly swollen at apical 1/3, without sensory pit, with sensilla scattered on the surface; PR 2.63 (2.50–2.75, n = 9). Three bristles on each side of the frontoclypeus. Proboscis length 150 μm, head height 250 μm, P/H ratio 0.59 (0.53–0.64, n = 9); mandible with 15–17 teeth (n = 9), maxilla with 14 teeth (n = 9).

Thorax ( Fig 1J and 1K View Fig 1 ) Scutum light brown, scutellum dark brown; wing with contrasting pattern of pale/dark spots; wing base with a large pale spot and connected to the wide pale band of the anal cell; basal 2/3 of 1 st radial cell and r-m cross-vein in pale spot, and extension posterior over M1 to connect with narrow pale band of m 2; distal 4/5 of 2 nd radial cell covered by pale spot; apical pale spot in cell r 5 cell faint, and reaching wing margin; m 1 with two pale spots, proximal pale spot long band; m 2 with two differently shaped pale spots: proximal pale spot long band extending from the base to distal, distal pale spot abutting the wing margin; m 4 with a pale spot abutting wing margin; anal cell with a wide pale band extending from base to distal; macrotrichia on the costal of the proximal of r 5 cell and distal of m 1, but no on the proximal of m 1; hind tibial comb with four spines, 2 nd spine longest, metatibial comb (mc) about 18 teeth, TR and F-T of legs are as in Table 1 View Table 1 .

Abdomen Light brown. Three subequal-size ovoid spermathecae ( Fig 1L View Fig 1 ), each measuring 25.00×23.00 μm.

Male ( Fig 1B View Fig 1 ) Similar to female with usual sexual differences.

Head The lengths of Antenna flagellomeres in the proportion 26:13:13:14:14:14:12:11:10:9:34:33:38, sensilla coeloconica on flagellomeres 1, 11–13; palpus with segments in proportions of 8:10:11:7:9, PR 1.57 (n = 1); one bristles on each side of the frontoclypeus.

Thorax Wing with pattern of pale spots as in Fig 1B View Fig 1 , wing length 0.82 (n = 1), width 0.33

(n = 1); CR 0.63 (n = 1); wings light dark, with eight pale spot; wing costal with three obvious dark spots; basal 1/3 of 1 st radial cell and r-m cross-vein in pale spot; distal 2/3 of 2 nd radial cell covered by pale spot; anal cell with a big irregular pale spot. Metatibial comb (mc) about 18 teeth, TR and F-T of legs are given as Table 1 View Table 1 .

Genitalia ( Fig 1M and 1N View Fig 1 ): the middle of the posterior margin of the 9 th genitalia sternite concave, wide, arc and the membrane free of microhairs. The posterior margin 9th basal tergite flat, a small V-shaped concave was observed in the middle part, parameres robust, sharp Angle shape. Gonocoxite slender in its basal part, the dorsal ankle digitation, mucro part bend to the medial side. The middle aedeagus is nearly tapered, aedeagus with deep bow type, the arch height of the aedeagus is about 1/2 of the total length of the aedeagus, reflexed in apex. Parameres separated, the middle part thick, diminution, curve and with a hook shape in apex.

Etymology. The name jiangchengensis refers to the collecting location of the species.

Type material. Holotype female, Qiaotouhe Village , Menglie Town, Jiangcheng County, Yunnan Province, China (22˚54 ' 49 " N, 101˚88 ' 70 " E), September 2015, light trap. Male, Maxidang Village , Bangdang Town , Gongshan County , Yunnan Province, China (27˚ 49 ' 54.8328 " N, 98˚41 46.0536 " E), Augest 2017, light trap. GoogleMaps

Paratypes: 9 females and 1 male, same data as holotype .

Distribution. China (Jiangcheng County and Gongshan county of Yunnan Province).

Remarks. C. jiangchengensis collected in Jiangcheng County in this study have three spermathecae, which were similar to those of the subgenus Pontoculicoides , Sinocoides , Jilinocoides and Trithecides. Two eyes of C. jiangchengensis were separated, excluding the subgenus Jilinocoides and Trithecides, and the wings have pale spots and dark spots excluding pontoculicoides, indicating that C. jiangchengensis is a member of the subgenus Sinocoides . At present, there are 9 species of Culicoides in subgenus Sinocoides , among which C. anthropophygas ( Fig 2 View Fig 2 ), C. hamiensis ( Fig 3 View Fig 3 ), C. jinghongensis ( Fig 4 View Fig 4 ), C. kongmiaoensis ( Fig 5 View Fig 5 ), C. multifarious ( Fig 6 View Fig 6 ), C. opertus ( Fig 7 View Fig 7 ) had an obvious sensory pit in the 3 rd segment of palpus, while C. jiangchengensis had no an obvious sensory pit, but with capitate sensilla scattered on the surface, which had significant differences between them. Although C. pungobovis ( Fig 8 View Fig 8 ) and C. jiangchengensis have similar morphological characteristics in the 3 rd segment of palpus, their sensilla coeloconica on flagellomere are significantly different, the former is 1,6–8, while the latter is 1,9–13. C. malipoensis ( Fig 9 View Fig 9 ), C. nanniwanensis ( Fig 10 View Fig 10 ) and C. jiangchengensis had similar morphological characteristics in the 3 rd palpus segment and the sensilla coeloconica on flagellomere, but there was no pale spot in the wings m 1 and m 4 of C. nanniwanensis , while the m 1 and m 4 of C. malipoensis and C. jiangchengensis with pale spot. C. jiangchengensis is the most similar to C. malipoensis in morphological characteristics, but the former has 2 pale spots in the m 1 and a wide pale band extended from the basal to the distal in the anal cell, while the latter has a pale band extended from base to the distal in the m 1 and a pale spot at the proximal in the anal cell.

In addition, the main characteristics distinguishing Culicoides in China are wing length, costal ratio (CR), antennal ratio (AR), proboscis ratio (PR), mandible teeth, and sensilla coeloconica on flagellomere. Table 2 View Table 2 provides detailed measurements.

DNA analyses

The phylogenetic tree based on the COI gene sequences of C. jiangchengensis , C. malipoensis from Jiangcheng County and Gongshan County, Yunnan Province and another 24 species of Culicoides shows that nine female C. jiangchengensis from Jiangcheng and two male C. jiangchengensis from Gongshan formed a separate branch ( Fig 11 View Fig 11 ). The mean intraspecific distance was 1%, and the maximum was 2.36%. Although C. jiangchengensis and C. malipoensis are on different branches, their genetic relationship is closest among other Culicoides ; the minimum interspecific distance was 12.6%.