Culicoides (Drymodesmyia) hinmani Khalaf, 1954

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 : 63-64

Culicoides (Drymodesmyia) hinmani Khalaf

(Fig. 115, 169, 216, 249, 250)

Culicoides hinmani Khalaf, 1952a: 353 (female; male genitalia; fig. male genitalia, parameres, female antenna, palpus; seasonal incidence; Oklahoma).

Culicoides (Oecacta) hinmani: Khalaf 1954: 37 (assignment to subgenus Oecacta ). Fox 1955: 241 (key and diagnoses of subgenera; species key; taxonomy). Khalaf 1957: 207 (diagnosis; seasonal incidence). Jones and Wirth 1958: 87 (redescription; C. hinmani misidentified by some authors as C. borinqueni Fox and Hoffman , which is not Nearctic). Wirth and Hubert 1960: 658 (key; fig. female wing, palpus, spermathecae, male genitalia, parameres).

Culicoides (Drymodesmyia) hinmani: Wirth 1965: 131 (placement in subgenus Drymodesmyia ). Childers and Wingo 1968: 15 (key; fig. female wing, spermathecae). Battle and Turner 1971: 49 (female; male genitalia; larval habitats; feeding habits; seasonal distribution; fig. female eye separation, palpus, wing, spermathecae, male genitalia, parameres). Blanton and Wirth 1979: 99 (key; numerical characters; female; male genitalia; fig. female antenna, palpus, wing, eye separation, spermathecae, leg, male genitalia, parameres; larval habitat, feeding habits, seasonal distribution). Guirgis 1984: 402 (female diagnosis). Wirth et al. 1985: 16 (numerical characters; fig. female wing). Murphree and Mullen 1991: 321 (key; larva; numerical characters; fig. head, hypostoma, epipharynx, caudal segment, mandible). Lamberson et al. 1992: 111 (key; pupa; fig. respiratory trumpet, operculum, abdominal segment 9, dorsal tubercles, abdominal chaetotaxy).

Culicoides borinqueni Fox and Hoffman , misidentified: Wirth 1952b: 238 (larval habitat). Snow 1955: 517 (feeding behavior). Wirth and Bottimer 1956: 261 (Texas ecology). Wirth and Jones 1956: 161 (Nearctic).

Diagnosis. ( Tables 14, 15) Yellow; wing pattern distinct; r 2 dark; pale spot at end of costa bilobed and wrapping back and beneath r 2; distal pale spots present in r 3, m 1, m 2, cua 1 and anal cell; in r 3 and m 1, not close to wing margin; in r 3, almost round; mandible with 13–15 minute teeth, half normal size; pore of sensory pit on palpal segment 3 <0.3 the diameter of segment, about as deep as wide, slightly widening internally; pale banding subapical on mid femora, basal and subapical on hind femora, subapical on hind tibiae; ventro-posterior membrane of male sternite 9 not spiculate; ventral apodeme of gonocoxite simple, about as long as and only a little more slender than dorsal apodeme; aedeagus simple, nearly V-shaped, median process evenly tapering to broad rounded tip, aedeagal ratio ~0.4; parameres separate, apices simple pointed.

Distribution. Wyoming, North Dakota ( Anderson and Holloway 1993) to New York ( Guirgis 1984), south to Utah (Grand County), Colorado, Texas to Florida. Culicoides hinmani is the northern and eastern treeholeinhabiting counterpart to the morphologically similar and southwestern C. (Drymodesmyia) byersi , which known ranges overlap in only Utah and Colorado.

Larval ecology. Culicoides hinmani ’s larval habitat is moist treeholes without standing water ( Kruger et al. 1990) of pH 8.7–9.3 ( Smith and Varnell 1967; Pappas and Pappas 1990). It has been reared from treeholes in tulip tree ( Liriodendron tulipifera Linnaeus , Magnoliaceae ) ( Wirth 1952b, as C. borinqueni ), oak ( Wirth and Bottimer 1956, as C. borinqueni ), magnolia ( Magnolia grandiflora Linnaeus , Magnoliaceae ) ( Smith 1965), buckeye ( Aesculus octandra March, Sapindaceae ) ( Hair et al. 1966), boxelder, linden, persimmon, post oak, and elm ( Pappas et al. 1991).

Adult behavior. Known hosts are unspecified birds ( Smith and Varnell 1967; Blanton and Wirth 1979), humans ( Snow 1955 as C. borinqueni ; Smith and Varnell 1967; Hair 1966; Hair and Turner 1968), and turkeys ( Meleagris gallopavo ) ( Tanner and Turner 1974; Atkinson 1988); and Hair (1966) collected blood-engorged C. hinmani from drop traps baited with domestic rabbit ( Oryctolagus cuniculus ), guinea pig ( Cavia porcellus ), and rat ( Rattus ). Furthermore, consistent with bird-feeding behavior, Atkinson et al. (1983) found C. hinmani naturally infected with Haemoproteus mansoni (as H. meleagridis ), a parasite of turkeys.

Snow (1955, as C. borinqueni ) reported C. hinmani to be a diurnal biter with an afternoon activity peak from ground-level into the canopy of a Tennessee forest. This diurnal feeding behavior may explain why C. hinmani was poorly represented in light traps, but readily collected in CO 2 -baited traps, in the present study ( Table 4).