Nota científica

New records of biting midges of the genus Culicoides Latreille (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) in Argentina

Nuevos registros de polvorines del género Culicoides Latreille (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) en Argentina

 

AYALA, Mahia M.^1,2* & MARINO, Pablo I.³

¹ Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Nodo Posadas (CONICET, UNaM). Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Químicas y Naturales. UNaM. Félix de Azara 1552, Posadas, Misiones, Argentina. *E-mail: ayalamahia@gmail.com
² Centro de Investigaciones Entomológicas CIE- PTMi. Ruta 12 Km 7 (3304) Miguel Lanús, Posadas, Misiones, Argentina.
³ División Entomología, Museo de La Plata. Paseo del Bosque s/n, 1900 La Plata, Argentina.

Received 01 - XI - 2017 | Accepted 18 - IV - 2018 | Published 28 - VI - 2018 https://doi.org/10.25085/rsea.770205

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ABSTRACT. A new record of a species of the genus Culicoides in Argentina, C. pifanoi Ortiz is presented, in addition to the following new records in Misiones province of C. chacoensis Spinelli & Wirth, C. plaumanni Spinelli and C. willinki Spinelli & Veggiani Aybar. The number of species formally recorded and properly recognized in Argentina to date reaches 44.

KEYWORDS. Argentina. Biting midges. Ceratopogonidae. Misiones. New records.

RESUMEN. Se brinda un nuevo registro en Argentina de una especie del género Culicoides Latreille, C. pifanoi Ortiz, y también se incluyen los siguientes nuevos registros en la provincia de Misiones de C. chacoensis Spinelli & Wirth, C. plaumanni Spinelli y C. willinki Spinelli & Veggiani Aybar. El número de especies registradas formalmente y reconocidas para Argentina asciende actualmente a 44.

PALABRAS CLAVE. Argentina. Ceratopogonidae. Misiones. Nuevas citas. Polvorines.

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Borkent and Spinelli (2007) in their catalogue of the Neotropical species of biting midges (Ceratopogonidae) recorded 41 species of the genus Culicoides Latreille from Argentina. Since this publication, three species were incorporated to the Argentinean fauna due to a couple of papers dealing with taxonomic revisions and new citations (Felippe-Bauer et al., 2009; Spinelli et al., 2013). On the other hand, Culicoides bachmanni Spinelli was recognized as a junior synonym of Culicoides horticola Lutz (Felippe-Bauer & Spinelli, 2009).

The purpose of this note is to give the corologic information arisen during a recent survey of biting midges in the province of Misiones, in the framework of the work of the senior author. During the feldwork, different species were collected, one of them not previously detected in the country, as well as three others that represent new records of Misiones.

For each registered species, the abbreviated synonymy is presented: the original description and citations that include records in Argentina followed by its updated distribution. The studied specimens are slide-mounted in Canada balsam, and deposited in the collection of the División Entomología, Museo de La Plata (MLPA) and in the collection of the Centro de Investigaciones Entomológicas, Posadas (CIEP), as noted.

Culicoides chacoensisSpinelli & Wirth

Culicoides chacoensis Spinelli & Wirth, 1984: 174 (male, female; Argentina); Spinelli & Ronderos, 1991: 89 (record for Corrientes); Ronderos & Spinelli, 2002: 93

Copyright AYALA, M.M. et al.- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY 4.0) (records for Córdoba, Río Negro and Chubut); Muzón et al., 2005: 62 (records for Río Negro); Spinelli et al., 2005: 140, 144 (in key, wing photo); Spinelli et al., 2010: 130 (record for Chile).

Types. Holotype female, Argentina, Salta, Pocitos (MLPA, examined).

Distribution. Bolivia, Paraguay, Central Chile, Argentina (Salta: type locality; río Juramento y ruta nacional 9. Córdoba: La Serranita; Corrientes: Destacamento de Prefectura Paniagua, 10 km S Monte Caseros. Río Negro: Meseta del Somuncura, Estancia El Rincón, vertiente arroyo Valcheta, 620 m, 40° 59' 24,1'' S; 66° 40' 35,7'' W; Chipauquil, vertiente arroyo Valcheta, 40° 58' 25'' S; 66° 39' 14,7'' W, 630 m. Chubut: Sierra Cuadrada, Estancia Don Eduardo), Uruguay.

New record. Argentina, Misiones, Departamento Cainguás, Municipio Campo Grande, 27° 12' 28'' S; 54° 58' 48'' W, I-2015, M. Ayala, 1 female (MLPA).

Culicoides plaumanni Spinelli

Culicoides plaumanni Spinelli in Spinelli et al., 1993: 69 (female; Argentina); Spinelli et al., 2005: 139, 143 (in key, wing photo).

Types. Holotype female, Argentina, Chaco, Parque Nacional El Chaco (MLPA, examined).

Distribution. Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil (Amazonas), Argentina (Chaco: type locality).

New records. Argentina, Misiones, Posadas, 27° 26' 11'' S; 55° 53' 47.4'' W, III-2013, M. Ayala, 3 females (CIEP); same data except VII-2013, 1 female, 1 male (CIEP); X-2013, 2 females (CIEP); XII-2013, 3 females (CIEP); Misiones, Departamento Cainguás, Municipio Campo Grande, 27° 12' 28'' S; 54° 58' 48'' W, V-2015, M. Ayala, 2 females (MLPA).

Culicoides willinki Spinelli & Veggiani Aybar

Culicoides willinki Spinelli & Veggiani Aybar, in Spinelli et al., 2013: 587 (male, female; Argentina).

Types. Holotype female, Argentina, Tucumán, Monteros, Reserva provincial La Florida. HT M (IFML, examined).

Distribution. Argentina (Tucumán: type locality).

New records. Misiones, Departamento Cainguás, Municipio Campo Grande, 27° 12' 28'' S; 54° 58' 48'' W, III-2015, M. Ayala, 2 females (CIEP); same data except IV-2015, 8 females (6 in CIEP, 2 in MLPA).

Culicoides pifanoi Ortiz

Culicoides pifanoi Ortiz, 1951: 588 (male, female; Venezuela); Spinelli et al., 2005: 139, 143, 149 (in key, wing photo; Paraguay).

Culicoides tricoloratus Wirth and Blanton, 1953: 233 (male, female; Panamá).

Types. Holotype female, Venezuela, Maracay, San Felipe (Instituto Nacional de Higiene, Caracas, Venezuela).

Distribution. Belize to Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Trinidad, Brazil (Para, Bahia, and Rio de Janeiro),

Paraguay.

New record. Argentina, Misiones, Departamento Cainguás, Municipio Campo Grande, 27° 12' 28'' S; 54° 58' 48'' W, V-2015, M. Ayala, 1 female (MLPA).

Remarks. This is the frst record of the species in Argentina.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work was supported by Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científcas y T écnicas, CONICET. We gratefully acknowledge Dr. Gustavo R. Spinelli, for his critical review of the manuscript.

LITERATURE CITED

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Felippe-Bauer, M.L., Pinto Damasceno, C., Py-Daniel, V., & Spinelli, G.R. (2009) Culicoides baniwa sp. nov. from the Brazilian Amazonia region with the sinopsis of the hylas species group (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae). Memorias del Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, 104, 851-857.         [ Links ]

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Spinelli, G.R., Marino, P.I., & Gaddi, A.L. (2010) New records of biting midges from Argentina and Chile (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae). Revista de la Sociedad Entomológica Argentina, 69, 127-132.

Spinelli, G.R., Veggiani Aybar, C., Dantur Juri, M.J., Lizarralde De Grosso, M., & Marino, P.I. (2013) Two new species and new records of biting midges of the genus Culicoidesfrom northwestern Argentina. Memorias del Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, 108, 586-589.

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