Subfamily Ceratopogoninae

Classification · Numbers · Habitat · Food · Remarks · Print References · Works Cited

Ptychopteridae - Ptychoptera (?) sp. - female

Insect - Stilobezzia coquilletti - female

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Diptera (Flies)

No Taxon ("Nematocera" (Non-Brachycera))

Infraorder Culicomorpha (Mosquitoes and Midges)

Family Ceratopogonidae (Biting Midges)

Subfamily Ceratopogoninae

Numbers

the largest subfamily, with 00 spp. in [34] genera in our area(1) and ~3700 spp. in 107 genera worldwide, arranged in 6 tribes (all six are represented in NA; not yet in the Guide: the largely neotropical Stenoxenini, with 2 genera, represented by a single sp. each north of Mexico)(2)

Habitat

Streams, lakes, ponds, sphagnum bogs

Food

Females of Culicoides are parasites of vertebrates. Females of other genera are predators of insects. Most females of Sphaeromiini, Palpomyiini, and Stenoxenini eat their mates.

Remarks

Tribes Culicoidini and Ceratopogonini have media petiolate, i.e. forking after R-M crossvein, or have base of M2 absent. The other tribes have media sessile, forking before crossvein, and have base of M2 present.

Print References

Downs, J.A. 1978. Feeding and mating in the insectivorous Ceratopogoninae (Diptera). Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada 104.

Willis W. Wirth and William L. Grogan, Jr. 1979. Biting midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae). 2: the species of the tribes Heteromyiini and Sphaeromiini. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 91:847-903. (BHL)

Works Cited

1.	Catalog of the New World biting midges north of Mexico (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) Borkent A., Spinelli G.R. 2009. Zootaxa 2273:1-48.

2.	Borkent A. (2012) World species of biting midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae)

Contributed by Eric R. Eaton on 1 November, 2006 - 2:59pm
Additional contributions by Vox Sciurorum, John Schneider, v belov
Last updated 25 May, 2020 - 1:20pm

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