Some New Records of Culicoides Species (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) from Iran
Abstract
Background: Biting midges of the genus Culicoides act as vectors for important diseases affecting humans and both wild and domestic animals. Collection of adult Culicoides specimens in the near vicinity of vertebrate hosts is the major part of any bluetongue surveillance plan. There are old records of Culicoides species dated from 1963, 1968 and 1975. Therefore, it was decided to collect different ceratopogonids members using a light trap.
Methods: One night catching using light traps with a suction fan was performed at representative sites (25 places) located in North Western Provinces (Ardebil, Eastern Azerbaijan, Western Azerbaijan and Zanjan) of Iran (suspected farms for clinical records of Bluetongue virus or serodiagnosis of the Bluetongue virus). Samples were detected and identified primarily and were sent to a reference center for final verification.
Results: Seven Culicoides species including (Culicoides circumscriptus, C. flavidus, C. longipennis, C. pulicaris, C. puncatatus, C. nubeculosus, and three species from Culicoides (Oecacta) are under study in reference laboratory in Poland and C. puncticollis were confirmed from Iran.
Conclusions: Morphological and explanation of each species was regarded in this study. In comparison to old record, there are four new records of Culicoides species from Iran and one species is regarded suspected for viral transmission.
Abdigoudarzi M (2008) The study of Culi- coides spp. as problem vectors of blue tongue virus to ruminants in Ardebil, East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan and Zanjan Provinces of Iran, Final report of research published by Ministry of J-E- Agriculture (In Persian).
Boorman J, Rowland C (1988) A key to the British genera of Ceratopogonidae (Diptera). Entomol Gaz. 39: 65–73.
Capela R, Purse BV, Pena I, Wittman EJ, Margarita Y, Capela M, Romão L, Mellor PS, Baylis M (2003) Spatial distribution of Culicoides species in Portugal in relation to the transmis- sion of African horse sickness and bluetongue viruses. Med Vet Ento- mol. 17(2): 165–177.
Connan RM, Lloyd S (1988) Seasonal aller- gic dermatitis in sheep. Vet Rec. 123:335–337.
Dik B, Yagci S, Linton YM (2006) A review of species diversity and distribution of Culicoides Latreille, 1809 (Dip- tera: Ceratopogonidae) in Turkey. J Nat Hist. 40(32–34): 1947–1967.
Djuricic B, Nedic D, Lausevic D, Pavlovic M (2003) The epizootiological ap- pearance of Bluetongue in the Cen- tral Balkans. In abstract book of Of- fice International de Epizooties OIEInternational Symposium on Blue- tongue, 26–29 October, Italy, p. 32.
Downes JA, Wirth WW (1981) Chapter 28: Ceratopogonidae. In: McAlpine JF, Peterson BV, Shewell GE, Teskey HJ, Vockeroth JR, Wood DM. Man- ual of Nearctic Diptera, Agriculture Canada Monograph 27. 1: 393–421.
Dzhafarov SM (1959) A new species of Cu- licoides Latr. from the Araks valley. Ent Rev. 38: 421–422.
Goffredo M, Meiswinkel R (2004) Entomo- logical surveillance of bluetongue in Italy: methods of capture, catch anal- ysis and identification of Culicoides biting midges. Vet Ital. 40(3): 260–265.
Khezri M, Azimi SM (2013) Epidemiologi- cal investigation of bluetongue virus antibodies in sheep in Iran. Vet World.6(3): 122–125.
Mellor PS, Pitzolis G (1979) Observations on breeding sites and light trap col- lections of Culicoides during an out- break of bluetongue in Cyprus. Bull Entomol Res. 69: 229–234.
Mellor PS (1990) The replication of Blue- tongue virus in Culicoides vectors. Curr Top Microbiol. 162: 143.
Mesghali A (1963) Heleidae (Diptera) of Iran, Some records of midges of the genus Culicoides. Bull Soc Pathol Exot. 56: 1063–1069.
Navai S, Mesghali A (1968) Ceratopogo- nidae (Diptera) of Iran. II. More rec- ords of Culicoides Latreille, 1809. J Nat Hist. 2: 241–246.
Navai S (1973) Culicoides (Diptera: Cerato- pogonidae) from the Persian Gulf area of Iran. 2 new species, C. mesghalii and C. shahgudiani. Bull Soc Pathol Exot Filiales. 66(1): 195–204.
Navai S (1977) Biting midges of the genus Culicoides (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) from south-west Asia [PhD thesis]. College Park, University of Maryland (MD), USA
Omeragic J, Vejzagic N, Zuko A, Jazic A (2009) Culicoides obsoletus (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) in Bosnia and Her- zegovina-first report. Parasitol Res.105: 563–565.
Rawlings P (1996) A key, based on wing patterns of biting midges (Genus Cu- licoides Latreille Diptera: Cerato- pogonidae) in the Iberian Peninsula, for use in epidemiological studies. Graellsia. 52: 57–71.Talavera S, Munoz-Munoz F, Pages N (2011) New insights on diversity, morphol- ogy and distribution of Culicoides Latreille 1809 (Diptera: Ceratopogo- nidae) from Northeast Spain. Ann Soc Entomol Fr. (N.S.): Int J Entomol.47: 1–2, 214–231.
Uslu U, Dik B (2007) Description of breed- ing sites of Culicoides species (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) in Turkey. Parasite.14: 173–177.
| Files | ||
| Issue | Vol 10 No 4 (2016) | |
| Section | Original Article | |
| Keywords | ||
| Ceratopogonidae Culicoides Iran | ||
| Rights and permissions | |
|
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. |
