Culicoides (Drymodesmyia) arizonensis 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 : 59-60

Culicoides (Drymodesmyia) arizonensis Wirth and Hubert

(Fig. 111, 164, 215)

Culicoides (Oecacta) arizonensis Wirth and Hubert, 1960: 655 (key; numerical characters; female; male genitalia; fig. female wing, palpus, spermathecae, male genitalia, parameres; Arizona).

Culicoides (Drymodesmyia) arizonensis: Wirth 1965: 130 (placement in subgenus Drymodesmyia ). Wirth et al. 1985: 14 (numerical characters; fig. female wing). Wirth et al. 1988: 24 (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 nearly filling distal 0.3–0.4 of cell, cut into on proximal side by dark spot; pale spots at ~0.3 on M 1 and ~0.5 on M 2; one pale spot in distal half of anal cell; tips of M 1, M 2 dark; CuA 1 and 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 ); femora and tibiae without subapical pale band; spermathecae unequal by ~1.5×, pyriform; ventro-posterior membrane of male sternite 9 densely spiculate; ventral apodeme of gonocoxite simple, ~0.5 as long as dorsal apodeme; aedeagus V-shaped, truncate tip ~0.25 width of arm spread, aedeagal ratio ~0.6; parameres separate, apices simple pointed bent.

Distribution. California, Arizona, Baja California.

Larval ecology and adult behavior. Culicoides arizonensis has been reared from rot holes in Carnegiea gigantea ( Ryckman 1960) and in Pachycereus schottii (Engelmann) D. R. Hunt (Cactaceae) ( Wirth and Hubert 1960). However, its adult hosts are unknown, though the mandibular and lacinial teeth on the female indicate it feeds on vertebrate blood.