Culicoides (Drymodesmyia) bakeri Vargas, 1960

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 : 60

Culicoides (Drymodesmyia) bakeri Vargas

(Fig. 197, 259)

Culicoides bakeri Vargas, 1954: 27 (female; male genitalia; fig. female wing, palpus, antenna, male genitalia; Federal District, Mexico). Wirth and Hubert 1960: 652 (key; numerical characters; female; male genitalia; fig. female palpus, spermathecae).

Culicoides (Glaphiromyia) bakeri: Vargas 1960: 41 (assignment to subgenus Glaphiromyia Vargas ).

Culicoides (Drymodesmyia) bakeri: Wirth et al. 1988: 24 (numerical characters). Borkent and Spinelli 2000: 30 (in Neotropical catalog). Huerta 2007: 24 (female; male; fig. female antenna, head, spermathecae, thorax, wing, male genitalia, aedeagus, parameres; Federal District, Mexico).

Diagnosis. ( Tables 14, 15) (Measurement and ratio data in Table 14 are averages of Mexico data ( Huerta 2007) and the data from the specimen collected in California.) Dark brown; wing pattern distinct; r 2 dark; distal pale spot in r 3 bilobed and 8-shaped into two separated spots; pale spots at ~0.3 on M 1 and ~0.5 on M 2; two pale spots in distal half of anal cell; tips of M 1, M 2, CuA 1 pale, pale apices of M 1 and M 2 connected thinly along wing margin, with thin pale margin extending partway up along margin of r 3; most of 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 ); combined distal five flagellomeres (including intersegmental spaces) on female equal to or slightly longer than combined proximal eight; pale bands basal on all femora, subapical on fore and mid femora, basal on all tibiae; spermathecae slightly pyriform, unequal by 1.2×, with necks longer than wide tapering to 0.15 diameter of spermatheca; ventro-posterior membrane of male sternite 9 not spiculate; ventral apodeme of gonocoxite simple; aedeagus V-shaped, nearly straight-sided tapering to blunt tip 0.19 width of arm spread, aedeagal ratio 0.50; parameres separate, apices with 4–6 spines.

Distribution. California (Riverside County, new United States record), Mexico City. Xinmi Zhang collected one female with UVLT on 28 June 2019 at the Boyd Deep Canyon Desert Research Center, Riverside County, California, 33.64239°N 116.38414°W at 318 m elevation.

Larval ecology and adult behavior. Culicoides bakeri ’s larval habitat is unknown; however, like other Drymodesmyia , its larval habitat is likely the abundant cacti at the collection site. Also, its adult hosts are unknown, though the mandibular and lacinial teeth on the female indicate it feeds on vertebrate blood.

Remarks. Though far from its Mexico type locality and only other known collection site, the female collected readily keys to C. bakeri in Wirth and Hubert (1960) and agrees with Huerta’s 2007 redescription (except for having 18 mandibular teeth), notably in having a double distal pale spot in r 3, two distinct distal pale spots in the anal cell (Fig. 197), and unequal spermathecae with distinct narrow necks (Fig. 259).