Description and comparison of the pupae of a further two <i>Culicoides</i> (<i>Avaritia</i>) species from the dung of large herbivores in South Africa (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae)

Abstract

In 2007 Nevill, Venter, Meiswinkel &amp; Nevill demonstrated that the pupae of five Culicoides species belonging to the Imicola complex of the subgenus Avaritia could readily be differentiated from one another using various morphological characters. Three of the described species, Culicoides bolitinos Meiswinkel 1989; Culicoides loxodontis Meiswinkel 1992 and Culicoides sp. # 107 (= C. kwagga, Meiswinkel, unpublished thesis 1995), were reared from the dung of large herbivores, which included buffaloes, elephants, white and black rhinoceroses and zebras. However, during that study a further two Avaritia species, neither of which belonged to the Imicola complex, were reared from dung and these are the subject of the present study. For the past 20 years the adults of these two new closely related species have been known as Culicoides sp. # 54 pale form (p.f.) Meiswinkel and Culicoides sp. # 54 dark form (d.f.) Meiswinkel. The taxonomic description and formal naming of the adults of these two species has yet to be done. The present description and comparison of their pupae show that they are two clearly distinct species; that there is no group of morphological characters that can be used to differentiate these two species from the previously described five species of the Imicola complex; and finally that there was no difference between the pupae of C. sp. # 54 d.f. nor C. sp. # 54 p.f. reared from the dung of different host animals.

Culicoides species as potential vectors of African horse sickness virus in the southern regions of South Africa

“…The overlap of community membership increases the opportunity for virus transmission between these equine species. Culicoides #54 df, which breeds in zebra dung (Nevil et al ., ), was found at all of the zebra sites but was not restricted to those sites, being relatively ubiquitous. Conversely, C. sp.…”

Phylogenetic relationships and molecular delimitation of CulicoidesLatreille (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) species in the Afrotropical region: interest for the subgenus Avaritia

“…This group includes C. alticola ; C. kanagai ; C. dasyops and recently C. sp . #54 Meiswinkel (new species, not described) (Nevill et al ., ; Labuschagne, ). The subgenus Avaritia was erected by Fox in 1955.…”

Culicoides Latreille (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) taxonomy: Current challenges and future directions

“…Borkent (2014a) noted that the subgeneric classification of Culicoides is almost entirely phenetic i.e. based on morphological similarity, generally of adult specimens, although a very limited number of studies have also included characteristics of immature stages in their assessments but with variable success ( Glukhova 1977; Nevill and Dyce, 1994; Nevill et al, 2009 ). Cladistic studies, using morphological comparison with outgroups to identify taxa with shared synapomorphies, have been used with some success to validate the status of several genera of Ceratopogonidae ( Borkent, 2000 ), but the subgeneric groupings within Culicoides are largely untested ( Borkent 2014a ) leading to the instability noted above .…”