Culicoides (Silvaticulicoides) sublettei Atchley, 1967

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 : 88

Culicoides (Silvaticulicoides) sublettei Atchley

( Fig. 94 , 148, 237)

Culicoides (Oecacta) sublettei Atchley, 1967: 997 (key; numerical characters; female; male genitalia; fig. female wing, palpus, tibial comb, spermathecae, male genitalia, parameres; New Mexico). Wirth et al. 1985: 34 (numerical characters; fig. female wing). Breidenbaugh and Mullens 1999b: 161 (comparison to C. vetustus Breidenbaugh and Mullens ).

Culicoides (Silvaticulicoides) sublettei: Borkent and Grogan 2009: 15 (in Nearctic catalog).

Culicoides spinosus Root and Hoffman , misidentified: Fox 1955: 255 (in part; key and diagnoses of subgenera; species key; taxonomy). Wirth and Bottimer 1956: 263 (Texas ecology). Khalaf 1957: 203 (may be misidentified; diagnosis; seasonal incidence; Oklahoma). Jones 1961b (Texas ecology). Jamnback 1965: 96 (in part; seasonal distribution; larval habitats).

Diagnosis. ( Tables 14, 15) Wing pattern reduced and faint; r 2 dark; pale spots at tip of costa, on r-m crossvein, distal in cua 1 and anal cells, absent from r 3, m 1, indistinct in m 2; spermathecae with sclerotized necks about as long as wide; ventral apodeme of gonocoxite simple, about as long as dorsal apodeme; entire lateral contour of gonostylus convex; aedeagus V-shaped, median process tapered, blunt; parameres separate, mostly straight, apex with 3–4 divergent holly leaflike spines.

Distribution. California, Utah, Colorado (USNM), Arizona (Cochise County, new state record), New Mexico, Texas. Khalaf’s (1957) C. spinosus Oklahoma record may be for C. sublettei . One female was collected with UVLT on 15 October 2019 at 31.89365°N 109.21416°W and 1708 m elevation in Arizona.

Larval ecology. Culicoides sublettei has been reared from mud at pond margins and light-trapped from 9 March to 9 October in south-central Texas ( Wirth and Bottimer 1956, as C. spinosus ). Jones (1961b, as C. spinosus ) collected immatures from muddy freshwater spring-creek areas and boggy stream margins in Texas.

Adult behavior. Jones et al. (1977) reported burros as hosts.

Remarks. The Arizona specimen I collected differs from Atchley’s (1967) description by having a sclerotized ring on the spermathecal duct. It also has the deeper palpal pit of C. vetustus and the shorter proboscis of C. usingeri . See subgenus Silvaticulicoides discussion.

Figures

Figures 94–99. Male genitalia of Culicoides, ventral view. Ventral apodeme of gonocoxite and apex of paramere circled on Fig. 94–96. 94) C. sublettei (Gillespie County, TX [FSCA]). 95) C. usingeri. 96) C. vetustus (San Bernardino County, CA [BM]). 97) C. posoensis (paratype, Kern County, CA [FSCA]). 98) C. kibunensis. 99) C. travisi (VA [FSCA]).