Culicoides ( Silvicola ) neofagineus Wirth and Blanton

Culicoides ( Silvicola) neofagineus Wirth and Blanton View in CoL

( Fig. 69 View Figures 66–72 , 122 View Figures 117–125 , 181, 244)

Culicoides ( Culicoides) neofagineus Wirth and Blanton, 1969b: 227 View in CoL (key; numerical characters; female, male; fig. female antenna, palpus, wing, eye separation, spermathecae, male genitalia, parameres; Arizona). Wirth et al. 1985: 10 (numerical characters; fig. female wing). Murphree and Mullen 1991: 312 (key; larva; numerical characters; fig. head, thorax, epipharynx, hypostoma, mandible, caudal segment).

Culicoides ( Silvicola) neofagineus: Mirzaeva and Isaev 1990: 156 View in CoL in English translation (as part of Cockerellii group, assignment to new subgenus Silvicola ).

Diagnosis. ( Tables 14, 15) Wing pattern extensive, with distinct distal stripes and pale spots; pale spot over at least distal half of r 2; cua 1 without central dark spot; eyes contiguous for ~2 ommatidium diameters; superior transverse suture present; palpal segment 3 with wide shallow, irregular, often subdivided sensory pit, often with scattered sensilla; scutum with prominent pattern; scutellum with ~17 setae on female, 10–13 on male; hind tibiae with basal pale band ~2× longer than wide; fore and hind tarsomeres without apical spines; spermathecae subequal to unequal by 1.2×; male tergite 9 with tiny apicolateral processes not projecting beyond median lobe; ventral apodeme of gonocoxite shorter than dorsal apodeme, strongly tapered, pointed, 1–2× as long as basal width; gonocoxite with strong black spines on mesal surface; aedeagus somewhat Y-shaped, median process abruptly narrowing on distal half to slender fingerlike tip, aedeagal ratio ~0.6; parameres separate, apices slen- der, posteriorly directed, with fringe of tiny hairs at tip.

Distribution. Oregon, California, southeastern Arizona, New Mexico ( new state record [ Monarch 2021]).

Larval ecology. William C. Reeves reared C. neofagineus from a sycamore treehole ( Wirth and Blanton 1969b), and E. S. Tikasingh reared it from treehole “humus”. Woodward et al. (1988) collected adults from emergence traps over treeholes in oaks ( Quercus kelloggii Newberry and Q. wislizenii Candolle , Fagaceae ) from early April through August in Northern California.

Adult behavior. Adult females have been collected from the ear of a deer, from a quail-baited drop trap ( Wirth and Blanton 1969b), and while biting a human ( Wirth 1977).