Culicoides stonei James

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 : 114-115

Culicoides stonei James

( Fig. 3, 7, 45)

Culicoides stonei James, 1943: 149 (female, male; fig. male genitalia, seasonal abundance; Colorado). Foote and Pratt 1954: 33 (key; diagnosis; fig. female wing, mesonotum, male genitalia).

Culicoides (Oecacta) stonei: Khalaf 1954: 38 (assignment to subgenus Oecacta ). Fox 1955: 256 (key and diagnoses of subgenera; species key; taxonomy). Jones and Wirth 1958: 91 (synonym: Culicoides weesei Khalaf ). Jones 1961a: 741 (in part; key; pupa; fig. respiratory trumpet, operculum; Texas; Utah variant, misidentified). Atchley 1967: 995 (key; numerical characters; female; male genitalia; fig. female wing, palpus, spermathecae, male genitalia, parameres). Wirth and Blanton 1971: 461 (key; Stonei group diagnosis; female, male; fig. female eye separation, antenna, palpus, spermathecae, wing, legs, male genitalia, parameres). Jones and Wirth 1978: 57 (key). Wirth et al. 1985: 36 (numerical characters; fig. female wing).

Culicoides weesei Khalaf, 1952b: 65 (male; fig. genitalia; Oklahoma). Khalaf 1952a: 351 (female; fig. female antenna, palpus, seasonal incidence). Fox 1955: 260 (key and diagnoses of subgenera; species key; taxonomy). Wirth and Bottimer 1956: 264 (Texas ecology). Khalaf 1957: 205 (diagnosis; seasonal incidence).

Diagnosis. ( Tables 14, 15, 17) Brown; wing without pattern of pale spots; legs yellowish; two sclerotized ovoid spermathecae and fingerlike vestigial third; posterior portion of female sternite 8 cleft, with blunt submedian posterior projections; ventro-posterior membrane of male sternite 9 spiculate; aedeagus Y-shaped, median process stout, short, blunt, half as long as basal arms; parameres separate, simple, apex curved hooklike (as in Fig. 41 C . mortivallis).

Distribution. Alberta ( Lysyk and Galloway 2014), South Dakota, south through Utah (Grand, Tooele counties), Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas ( Swanson et al. 2018), Oklahoma, to New Mexico, Texas.

Larval ecology and adult behavior. In Texas, immatures have been collected from salt-water and alkalinewater soil and grassy saline pools ( Jones 1961b), and adult females have been collected from white-tailed and unidentified deer ( Wirth and Blanton 1971).

Remarks. Jones’s description of the Grand County, Utah, pupa variant (1961a: 741), Grand County larval habitat record ( Jones 1961b), and Mesa County, Colorado, sheep host record ( Jones 1961c) for C. stonei are likely for C. mortivallis . See also Stonei group discussion.