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]
| Culiseta arenivaga | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Diptera |
| Family: | Culicidae |
| Genus: | Culiseta |
| Species: | C. arenivaga
|
| Binomial name | |
| Culiseta arenivaga (Marks, 1968)
| |
Description
editThe 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
editThe 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
editC. 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
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "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.