Leptoconops (Holoconops) arnaudi Clastrier and Wirth

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 : 21

Leptoconops (Holoconops) arnaudi Clastrier and Wirth

Leptoconops (Holoconops) arnaudi Clastrier and Wirth, 1978: 29 (key; female, male; fig. female antenna, palpus, spermathecae, male palpus, genitalia; California).

Leptoconops kerteszi Kieffer , misidentified: Freeborn and Zimmerman 1934: 261 (male; fig. male wing, genitalia, female wing; Sonoma County, California).

Holoconops kerteszi (Kieffer) , misidentified: Smith and Lowe 1948: 158 (as the Bodega black gnat; distribution, egg, larva, female pupa, male pupa, female adult, male adult, biology; fig.).

Leptoconops (Holoconops) kerteszi , misidentified: Wirth 1952a: 113 (in part; key; female; male genitalia; biology). Wirth and Atchley 1973: 45 (in part; key; female, male; fig. female wing, head, genitalia, spermathecae, hind tibial comb, fore tarsomeres 1 and 2, male genitalia; biology).

Distribution. Coastal California beaches (Sonoma, Marin, Ventura counties).

Larval ecology. Larvae have been collected from 2–8 cm deep in moist to saturated brackish sandy soil with 640 ppm chloride within a zone occasionally inundated by high tides ( Smith and Lowe 1948, as H. kerteszi ). They found eggs June–August and determined it takes the larvae 8–10 months to mature and then pupate March–August of the following year.

Adult behavior. Males have been collected swarming on the downwind side of objects near shore March–October, and females have been observed to bite humans, dogs, and cats ( Smith and Lowe 1948, as H. kerteszi ).

Remarks. This is the infamous Bodega black gnat. No L. arnaudi were examined.