Biting midges of the genus Culicoides in South Carolina zoos
1114 Long Hall, Department of Entomology, Soils & Plant Sciences, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina
29634
2Florida State Collection of Arthropods, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Gainesville,
Florida 32608
3 Current address: Enteric, Zoonotic, and Vector-Borne Disease Unit, Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, 1075 Bay Street,
Ontario, M5S 2B1, Canada
Abstract
Biting midges of the genus Culicoides (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) were collected during the summer of 2007 at the Greenville and Riverbanks Zoos in South Carolina with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) traps equipped with ultraviolet or incandescent lights and baited with carbon dioxide. Sixteen species of Culicoides were collected, four of which represented more than 80%. They were Culicoides guttipennis (Coquillett), Culicoides mulrenanni Beck, Culicoides obsoletus (Meigen), and Culicoides sanguisuga (Coquillett). C. guttipennis was found on a dead colobus monkey and a dead golden-headed lion tamarin; Culicoides husseyi Wirth & Blanton was collected from an unidentified, abandoned bird’s nest. Ultraviolet light-equipped traps captured significantly more Culicoides specimens than traps with incandescent light. Half of the collected species previously have been associated with vertebrate pathogens, indicating a potential risk to captive animals.
Keywords: biting flies, blood feeding, exotic animals, light traps, vectors
Correspondence:
a*mark.nelder@ontario.ca,
bdswanso@clemson.edu,
cpadler@clemson.edu,
dwlgrogan@salisbury.edu *Corresponding author
Associate Editor: Susan Paskewitz was editor of this paper.
Received: 24 June 2008 | Accepted: 28 August 2008 | Published: 6 June 2010
Copyright: This is an open access paper. We use the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license that permits unrestricted use, provided that the paper is properly attributed.
ISSN: 1536-2442 | Volume 10, Number 55
Nelder MP, Swanson DA, Adler PH, Grogan WL 2010. Biting midges of the genus Culicoides in South Carolina zoos. Journal of Insect Science 10:55, available online: insectscience.org/10.55