Culicoides doeringae Atchley, 1014

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 : 108-109

Culicoides doeringae Atchley

( Fig. 84, 85 , 138, 139, 229, 230, 264)

Culicoides (Oecacta) doeringae Atchley, 1967: 1014 (key; numerical characters; female; male genitalia; fig. female wing, palpus, tibial comb, eye separation, spermathecae, antennal segments, male genitalia, parameres; New Mexico). Atchley and Wirth 1975: 1423 (comparison with C. lophortygis ). Wirth et al. 1985: 22 (numerical characters; fig. female wing).

Culicoides piliferus No. 2: Jorgensen 1969: 24 (key; quantitative characters; female; male genitalia; fig. wing, spermathecae, palpus, antenna, male parameres, genitalia; eastern Washington).

Diagnosis. ( Tables 14–16) Brown. Wing pattern distinct; r 2 dark; isolated pale spots straddling midportions of M 1 and M 2; distal pale spot in r 3 filling most of distal half, but may be indistinct; distal pale spots in m 1, m 2; no pale band or patch on posteromedian margin of anal cell; flagellomeres 9–10 normal, each larger than 8; SCo pattern 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, (10), 11–13, rarely absent from 9; eyes narrowly separated 0.1–1.0 ommatidium diameter; labrum without apical median projection; scutellum with 8–10 setae on female; fore and hind tarsomeres without apical spines; spermathecae unequal by ~1.4, sclerotized necks <0.5 as long as wide or absent; sclerotized ring on spermathecal duct; male tergite 9 posterior margin concave, with distinct apicolateral processes extending beyond medial portion; sternite 9 caudomedian excavation deep and about three-sided; ventral apodeme of gonocoxite with two widely divergent processes, footlike; aedeagus Y-shaped, basal arms with basal ends slightly curved laterally, arms without submedian fingerlike lobes, arms posteromedially fused by moderate sclerotization, median process simple, aedeagal ratio 0.45–0.6; parameres separate with basal heads broad anvillike, with fringe of spines on apical third, without submedian lobe.

Distribution. Washington ( Jorgensen 1969), Oregon, Idaho (Bonneville County new state record), Montana, south through Utah (Garfield, Grand, Summit counties), Colorado, to California, Arizona, New Mexico.

Larval ecology. Jorgensen (1969) collected “ C. piliferus No. 2” (which I think is synonymous with C. doeringae , see remarks) with an emergence trap over a freshwater seepage spring in a cattle pasture; however, he conflates the seasonal distribution and abundance data for “ C. piliferus No. 2” with that of his distinctly different “ C. piliferus No. 1”, making it uncertain as to which species these data apply.

Adult behavior. The mandibular and lacinial teeth on the female indicate it feeds on vertebrate blood; and though its hosts are unknown, it is a member of the Piliferus group, generally considered ornithophilic ( Wirth and Hubert 1962). Furthermore, like Piliferus group species A, C. doeringae was moderately common in light traps but nearly absent from CO 2 -baited traps ( Table 4).

Symbionts. Male and female C. doeringae were parasitized by larval mites ( Table 10), which species may indicate C. doeringae ’s pupal habitat or oviposition site.

Remarks. Because Jorgensen’s (1969: 24) descriptions of the female and of the male genitalia of his “ C. piliferus No. 2” (including his Fig. 8B 1 ) are so similar to C. doeringae in all respects, I think they are conspecific.

Culicoides doeringae specimens collected in Grand County have considerable variation of wing pattern intensity (Fig. 138, 139, 229, 230) ; however, the range of variations were clustered together in the same peaks of seasonal distribution (Table 5), indicating they represent variation within a single species. Furthermore several C. doeringae specimens collected in Grand County had smaller antennal ratios (down to 1.29), and males often had a greater aedeagal arch height (aedeagal ratio 0.59 in Fig. 84 ) than described by Atchley (1967) (~ 0.45 in text, 0.5 in his Fig. 129) for New Mexico and Arizona specimens ; and one of the two females collected in the same trap on 11 July 2019 in Summit County, despite being otherwise completely similar, had equal-sized spermathecae (1.00 versus 1.30 differential of the other specimen), indicating spermathecae may be somewhat variable .

Culicoides doeringae and C. lophortygis may be conspecific. From the descriptions by Atchley (1967) and Atchley and Wirth (1975), the following characters overlap ( C. doeringae first, C. lophortygis second): female wing length (1.13–1.34, 1.09–1.23), antennal ratio (1.48–1.73, 1.38–1.62), ratio of the lengths of flagellomeres 7+8 to flagellomere 9 (1.00–1.27, 0.97–1.15), palpal ratio (2.30–2.87, 2.82–2.88), and proboscis ratio (1.03–1.20, 0.89.–1.03). This leaves the intensity of the wing pattern (“more prominent”, “rather indistinct” [ Atchley and Wirth 1975]) and eye separation (“width of median hair socket” [ Atchley 1967], “greater than width of an ommatidial facet” [ Atchley and Wirth 1975]) as the only stated distinctions. However, their differing described SCo patterns (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, (10), 11–13 and 1, 3, (5), (7), 11-13) are not cited as a distinction in Atchley and Wirth (1975: 1423).

Table 16 shows the six different SCo patterns of 27 C. doeringae specimens and compares their wing pattern intensities and eye separations. These data fail to show a correlation between these characteristics—calling into question the species distinction between C. doeringae and C. lophortygis . That C. lophortygis is known to bite California valley quail ( Lophortyx californicus ) ( Atchley and Wirth 1975) has implications for C. doeringae being a possible vector of avian parasites.

Figures

Figures 81–87. Male genitalia of Culicoides Piliferus group, ventral view. 81) C. cavaticus, focused on aedeagus. 82) C. cavaticus, focused on aedeagus arm base (Aab), basal head of paramere (Ph), ventral apodeme of gonocoxite (Gcva) (paratype, Sacramento County, CA [FSCA]). 83) C. cavaticus (Grand County, UT). 84) C. doeringae, focused on aedeagus. 85) C. doeringae, focused on basal head of paramere (Ph), ventral apodeme of gonocoxite (Gcva). 86, 87) C. Piliferus group species A variations.

Figures 3–8. Female wings with cells (lower case) and veins (upper case) labeled. 3) Culicoides stonei. 4) C. atchleyi (Bonneville County, ID). 5) Leptoconops torrens. Female abdomen, ventral view. 6) L. torrens. 7) C. stonei. 8) L. californiensis, dorsal habitus (in alcohol, Yuma County, AZ [Carl Olson, with permission]).

Figures 1–2. Female lateral habitus (in alcohol). 1) Leptoconops (Holoconops) Kerteszi group. 2) Culicoides (Monoculicoides) sonorensis.