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 & 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 # 107 (= C. kwagga, Meiswinkel, unpublished thesis 1995), were reared from the dung of large herbivores, which included buffaloes, elephants, white and black rhinoceroses and zebras.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.