Culicoides (Campbell & Pelham-Clinton, 1960)

Borkent, Art, 2024, The Phylogeny of the Genera of Biting Midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) of the World, Zootaxa 5438 (1), pp. 1-274 : 224

Culicoides :

- Female of blood feeding species with strong lateral teeth on subapical margin of the labrum. I was unable to consistently study the labral teeth of Ceratopogonidae but none seem to have the marginal row of strong teeth, closely appressed against one another, other than some Atrichopogon (where it is clearly homoplastic). Non-blood feeding Culicoides and members of the subgenus C. (Trithecoides), many of which feed on Culicidae and Psychodidae adults, do not have these clearly defined strong lateral teeth.

- With the same limitations as for the labral teeth, the hypostoma of biting species other than C. (Trithecoides) have a marginal row of strong teeth, unique in the family.

- Female prementum medial suture simple dorsally, either short and incomplete or extending to dorsal margin of prementum (the latter present also in C. (Groganomyia). See character 47 for further discussion of this feature.