Culiseta arenivaga

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Culiseta arenivaga
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Diptera
Family: Culicidae
Genus: Culiseta
Species:
C. arenivaga
Binomial name
Culiseta arenivaga
(Marks, 1968)

Culiseta arenivaga is a species of mosquito in the family Culicidae found on Fraser Island, Queensland, Australia, in the Australasian biogeographic realm. [1] [2] [3] The holotype and paratype specimens were collected in 1967 by Dr. Elizabeth N. Marks who described the new species the following year. [1]

Contents

Description

The head is generally light brown, darker behind the eyes, with narrow curved pale golden scales mesially, and flat pale scales laterally. [1] The antennae are reddish brown at the base and dark distally. The palps and proboscis have black scales. [1] The thorax is a bright light reddish brown, with bare submedian stripes on the scutum and scattered fine black narrow curved scales and bristles on either side. [1] The scutellum is sparsely scaled, and the postnotum is light brown. [1] The abdomen is generally dark-scaled with purplish reflections, with a pale sternite. [1]

The wings are dark-scaled with long, narrow plume scales, the halteres are pale with a dark-scaled knob, and the legs are generally dark-scaled . [1] The proboscis is approximately 1.5 times the length of the femur of the first pair of legs, the antennae are shorter than the proboscis, and the palp is one-sixth the length of the proboscis including the labella . [1]

Bionomics

The type specimens, all females, were collected during overcast and showery conditions in a forest of hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamil) planted in carrol (Backhousia myrtifolia) scrub and in close proximity to a fresh water creek fringed by rainforest. [1] They showed no sign of engorgement with blood but whether they attempted to bite is not known. [1]

Etymology

C. arenivaga is named from the Latin words describing its habitat, arenosus meaning "sandy" and vagus meaning "wanderer", thus "a wanderer in sandy places." [1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Elizabeth N. Marks (1968). "Northern Records of the Genus Culiseta Felt in Australia with the Description of a New Species (Diptera: Culicidae)". Journal of the Australian Entomological Society . 7 (1): 43–56. doi: 10.1111/j.1440-6055.1968.tb00700.x .
  2. "Culicidae » Culicinae » Culisetini » Culiseta » Subgenus Uncertain 1 » arenivaga Marks" in the Systematic Catalog of Culicidae, Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit, http://mosquitocatalog.org/taxon_descr.aspx?ID=15448, retrieved 15 Apr 2018.
  3. "Culiseta arenivaga Marks, 1968" in The Catalogue of Life Partnership (2018). Catalogue of Life. Checklist Dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/rffz4x accessed via GBIF.org on 2018-04-15.