Description of Culicoides truuskae sp. n. (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) from southern Africa

Abstract

Culicoides truuskaeLabuschagne and Meiswinkel sp. n. is described and illustrated in both sexes from material collected in South Africa and Namibia. It is restricted to the xeric western margin of the subcontinent, occurring in Fynbos, Nama-Karoo and Succulent Karoo ecoregions in South Africa and Desert and Savanna ecoregions in Namibia experiencing 600 mm of rainfall annually.Culicoides truuskaesp. n. is part of the Afrotropical 'plain-wing'Culicoidesin which the wing lacks a distinguishing pattern of light and dark spots; the diagnostic dark smudge that traverses wing cell r3 may result inC. truuskaesp. n. being misidentified as the sympatric but phyletically unrelatedCulicoides herero(Enderlein) - (of the Similis group, subgenus Oecacta Poey). Additionally, this study is the first description of the male ofC. herero. C. truuskaesp. n. andCulicoides coarctatusClastrier and Wirth share similar characters in the male genitalia, although the two species are separable on wing pattern and female flagellum sensilla coeloconica (SCo) distribution. The breeding habitat and adult female blood-feeding preferences of C.truuskaesp. n. are not known. A maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree, using mitochondrialcytochrome c oxidaseI (COI) sequence data, is provided to further clarify the relationship betweenC. truuskaesp. n.,C. coarctatusandC. herero. Extensive light trap data, collected over 30 years, are used to map the distribution ranges ofC. truuskaesp. n.,C. coarctatusandC. hereroin Southern Africa.Contribution:The description of this new species and the description of the male ofC. hereroincreases our understanding of the diversity and distribution ofCulicoidesspecies in southern Africa.