Culiseta arenivaga | |
---|---|
Scientific classification ![]() | |
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]
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]
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]
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]