Culicoides (Drymodesmyia) insolatus Wirth and Hubert

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 : 64-65

Culicoides (Drymodesmyia) insolatus Wirth and Hubert

(Fig. 110, 166, 200)

Culicoides (Oecacta) insolatus Wirth and Hubert, 1960: 654 (key; numerical characters; female; male genitalia; fig. female wing, palpus, spermathecae, male genitalia, parameres; Baja California).

Culicoides (Drymodesmyia) insolatus: Wirth et al. 1985: 16 (numerical characters; fig. female wing). Wirth et al. 1988: 26 (numerical characters; fig. female wing). Borkent and Spinelli 2000: 30 (in Neotropical catalog).

Diagnosis. ( Tables 14, 15) Dark brown; wing pattern distinct; r 2 dark; distal pale spot in r 3 roundly squarish to slightly bilobed with small anterior cap, oriented perpendicular to M 1; pale spots at ~0.3 on M 1 and ~0.5 on M 2, sometimes the spot at ~0.3 only touching anterior of, not straddling, vein; one distinct pale spot in distal half of anal cell; tips of M 1, M 2, CuA 1 dark; most of CuA 1, all of CuA 2 within dark areas; pore of sensory pit on palpal segment 3 <0.3 the diameter of segment, widening internally (as in Fig. 248 C. sitiens ); tibiae without subapical pale band; spermathecae unequal by ~1.2×, ~1.1× longer than wide; ventro-posterior membrane of male sternite 9 spiculate; ventral apodeme of gonocoxite simple; aedeagus V-shaped, papilliform tip <0.1 width of arm spread, aedeagal ratio ~0.4; parameres separate, apices simple pointed bent hooklike.

Distribution. California, Baja California, Sonora. The single female I collected with UVLT on 4 April 2019 at 34.81440°N 115.61413°W and 1219 m elevation in the Granite Mountains of San Bernardino County, California, may be near the northern limit for this hot-desert species.

Larval ecology and adult behavior. Culicoides insolatus has been reared from rot holes in Pachycereus schottii ( Ryckman 1960) . The specimen I collected was from an area where the cacti flora was predominately several Opuntia species, with a few Ferocactus , Echinocereus Engelmann , and Mammillaria Haworth (Cactaceae) . However, its adult hosts are unknown, though the mandibular and lacinial teeth on the female indicate it feeds on vertebrate blood.