Culicoides (Monoculicoides) grandensis Grogan and Phillips, 2008

William L. Grogan, Jr. & Lysyk, Timothy J., 2015, A revision of the biting midges in the Culicoides (Monoculicoides) nubeculosus-stigma complex in North America with the description of a new species (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae), Insecta Mundi 2015 (441), pp. 1-24 : 9-10

Culicoides (Monoculicoides) grandensis Grogan and Phillips

Culicoides (Monoculicoides) grandensis Grogan and Phillips, 2008: 197 . (male, female; Utah); Borkent and Grogan 2009: 15 (in Nearctic catalog; distribution).

Diagnosis. A small species of the C. nubeculosus - stigma complex most closely resembling C. shemanchuki , new species, but differing from that and other Nearctic species in this complex by the following combination of characters: male wing length 1.09 mm, female wing length 1.33–1.39 mm; wing with indistinct, poorly developed dark markings; femora and tibiae pale, non-banded. Male with very short genitalia; gonocoxite and gonostylus very short, gonostylus tapering at mid-length to moderately slen- der pointed tip; parameres Y-shaped, fused proximally, distal portion slender, bifurcate; distal half of aedeagus tapered, triangular with undivided pointed tip.Female proboscis very short (proboscis/head ratio 0.6); mandible and lacinia vestigial, without teeth; and a very small short, ovoid spermatheca (length 0.054 mm) with minute hyaline punctations and a broad opening.

Distribution. Known only from southeastern Utah (Grand Co.), but probably also inhabits other sections of the Upper Colorado Plateau in northeastern Arizona, western Colorado, northwestern New Mexico and extreme southwestern Wyoming.

Type. Type locality, Utah, Grand Co., near Cisco.

Discussion. The original description, illustrations and photographs are sufficient for the identification of this species; therefore, we only provide a diagnosis of adults and included C. grandensis in our key of Nearctic species in the C. nubeculosus - stigma complex. We recommend that interested workers consult Grogan and Phillips (2008) for details of morphological characters and numerical data of this species.

In their discussion section of C. grandensis, Grogan and Phillips (2008) included quotes from letters between Willis Wirth and Antony Downes “…about collaborating on describing two undescribed species of C. ( Monoculicoides ) from southern Alberta.” One of these undescribed species was “…n. sp. near stigma ,…” which Grogan and Phillips assumed to be C. grandensis , and which Wirth and Downes (in litt.) also referred to as “n. sp. 113”, as this number was on the slide labels of the holotype male and allotype female of that species. It is now clear that this was not the case because Art Borkent eventually found Downes’ specimens of “n. sp. near stigma ” in the CNCI shortly after Grogan and Phillips (2008) published their description and illustrations of C. grandensis , but none of them were labeled n. sp. 113. However, all of these specimens from Alberta, Canada are in fact C. stigma , which we discuss below.

Bionomics. As noted by Grogan and Phillips (2008), Jones (1961) reared the holotype male and allotype female from pupae he collected on 30 May 1958 on the non-vegetated margin of a small stream with white salt deposits near Cisco, Grand County, Utah (in USNM). The only other known specimen of this apparently rare species is a female paratype collected with a CDC light trap by Phillips on 18 September 2001, 4 km southwest of Moab, Grand County, Utah (in CNCI).