Leptoconops (Leptoconops) freeborni Wirth, 1973

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 : 27

Leptoconops (Leptoconops) freeborni Wirth

Leptoconops (Styloconops) freeborni Wirth, 1952a: 115 (assignment to subgenus Styloconops Kieffer ; key; female, male; fig. female antenna, wing, genitalia, fore and hind tarsomeres, palpus, male genitalia; California).

Leptoconops (Leptoconops) freeborni: Wirth and Atchley 1973: 24 (assignment to subgenus Leptoconops ; key; female, male; fig. female wing, head, antenna, hind tarsomere 5, genitalia, fore tarsomeres 1–2, male, genitalia, antenna, genitalia, hind tarsomere 5). Borkent and Spinelli 2000: 9 (in Neotropical catalog).

Diagnosis. ( Table 13) Entirely dark brown to black; stigma indistinct; eyes bare; palpal segment 3 sensilla in superficial excavation wider than deep (female as in Fig. 12 L . carteri); clypeus with two setae; hind tibial comb with five spines. Female: antenna with 12 flagellomeres; mandible with 19 teeth; hind tarsomeres 3 and 5 subequal; claw with prominent basal tooth; two ovoid spermathecae, third absent; cerci>3× longer than wide (as in Fig. 6 L . torrens). Male: flagellomere 13 ~2.4× longer than 12; tergite 9 evenly tapering to base of fingerlike widely separated apicolateral processes, which are ~4× longer than wide and separated by a distance about equal to their length; aedeagal sclerites separate, apically expanded, blunt; distal sclerite of paramere slightly sinuate ~3× longer than wide, apical half not greatly expanded.

Distribution. Coastal Southern California, Baja California.

Adult behavior. The holotype male was collected by sweeping at a salt marsh in Ventura County, California, in week 24 ; and, in addition to the collections indicated in Table 5, L. freeborni has been collected 28 December in Orange County, California. However , little else is known about the biology of this species other than that the mandibular and lacinial teeth on the female indicate it feeds on vertebrate blood .

Remarks. No L. freeborni were examined.

Figures

Figures 9–15. 9) Leptoconops americanus female clypeus, setae (s). 10) L. knowltoni female clypeus. 11) L. knowltoni female palpal segment 3. 12) L. carteri female palpal segment 3 (Yolo County, CA). 13) L. werneri female tarsomeres 4–5 and claw (paratype, Imperial County, CA [UCRC]). 14) L. werneri male genitalia, ventral view, tergite 9 apicolateral processes (T9alp), meso-posterior lobe setae (s) (Riverside County, CA [UCRC]). 15) L. belkini male genitalia, ventral view, tergite 9 sclerotized lobe (L) (Riverside County, CA [UCRC]).

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]).