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 Edit this 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

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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

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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

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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

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  1. ^ 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.
  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.