C. oxystoma (Kieffer 1910)

Taxonomy	Biology	Distribution

Culicoides oxystoma Kieffer 1910: 193. India
(Kieffer 1910: 193. ♀, desc, fig)
(Macfie 1943: 157. Notes, fig, Egypt, as schultzei)
(Clastrier 1957: 425. ♂, ♀, notes, figs, as schultzei)
(Khalaf 1957: 336. Notes, as schultzei)
(Gutsevich 1959: 678. ♂, ♀, notes, figs, as schultzei)
(Gutsevich 1960: 89. ♂, ♀, notes, figs, as schultzei)
(Nagaty & Morsy 1960: 27. Notes, as schultzei)
(Khalaf 1961: 468. Notes, as schultzei, Iraq)
(Navai & Mesghali 1968: 245. Record, Iran, as schultzei)
(Howarth 1985: 68. Pupa, notes, biology)
(Glukhova 1989: 224. ♂, ♀, notes, figs, larva, as schultzei)
(Wirth & Hubert 1989: 399. Description, ♂, ♀, figs)
    = kiefferi Patton
Culicoides kiefferi Patton 1913: 336. India (preocc)
    = mesopotamiensis Patton
Culicoides mesopotamiensis Patton 1920: 246. Iraq
(Patton 1920: 246. ♀, desc, figs)
(Patton 1921: 246. ♀, desc, fig)

Diagnosis and Notes

The wings are greyish with pale markings as in other schultzei group species; there is a single elongated 8-shaped pale spot in the cubital cell and two spots separated by an elongated pale streak in cell m2. The female AR is 0.96-1.11; the SD is 3, 8-10. The male genitalia as shown; the ninth sternite membrane spiculate (not shown in the figure).
The figure of the male genitalia is from Wirth & Hubert (1989).
This species resembles C. subschultzei closely and it is difficult to decide if in fact the two are distinct species. C. subschultzei was described from the Afrotropical region; it seems logical to label the Palaearctic examples as oxystoma and reserve the name subschultzei for the subSaharan specimens. Further, western Palaearctic specimens closely resemble C. mesopotamiensis which is accepted as a junior synonym of C. oxystoma.