Update of the Species Checklist of Culicoides Latreille, 1809 Biting Midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) of Morocco

Overview

Journal Parasit Vectors

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialties Parasitology
Tropical Medicine

Date 2019 Sep 26

PMID 31551074

Citations 10

Authors

Maria Bourquia

Claire Garros

Ignace Rakotoarivony

Laetitia Gardes

Karine Huber

Intissar Boukhari

Jean-Claude Delecolle

Thierry Baldet

Antoine Mignotte

Youssef Lhor

Khalid Khallaayoune

Thomas Balenghien

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Investigations of Culicoides fauna, including inventories, were carried out in Morocco at different periods after the country had faced major bluetongue and African horse sickness outbreaks. However, no comprehensive reference publication has provided a clear overview of the Culicoides species diversity. This study reviewed available data on Culicoides biting midge species in Morocco from 1968 to 2015 (published and grey literature in French and English) in order to revise the current checklist, in light of state of the art taxonomic and systematic knowledge, and confirmed the checklist with morphological and molecular identifications of specimens collected from the region of Rabat.

Methods: Literature related to Culicoides collections in Morocco was collated. Authors were contacted to obtain raw data and additional information for the collections. Fresh Culicoides material was collected and examined from two sites around Rabat, the capital of Morocco. Each collected individual was examined and morphologically identified, if possible, to the species level. In addition, molecular identification was performed to separate closely related species, to confirm difficult morphological identifications and to confirm new species records.

Results: A total of 6121 individuals of Culicoides spp. were collected and analyzed and at least 17 species were identified: C. cataneii/C. gejgelensis, C. circumscriptus, C. fagineus, C. festivipennis, C. imicola, C. jumineri, C. kingi, C. longipennis, C. montanus, C. newsteadi, C. obsoletus, C. paolae, C. parotti, C. puncticollis, C. sahariensis, C. scoticus and C. subfagineus. Seven species were confirmed using phylogenetic analyses. Two new species records for Morocco are reported: C. paolae and C. subfagineus.

Conclusions: The Moroccan fauna of Culicoides now includes 54 valid species. Further work would certainly increase this total, as one of the clades we identified was not affiliated to any described and valid species.

Citing Articles

Diversity of biting midges, mosquitoes and sand flies at four dog shelters in rural and peri-urban areas of Central Morocco.

Zahri A, Ahlamine M, Abou-Elaaz F, Talimi H, El Berbri I, Balenghien T Parasite. 2024; 31:57.

PMID: 39331804 PMC: 11433837. DOI: 10.1051/parasite/2024057.

Sampling of Culicoides with nontraditional methods provides unusual species composition and new records for southern Spain.

Gonzalez M, Magallanes S, Bravo-Barriga D, Sarto I Monteys V, Martinez-de la Puente J, Figuerola J Parasit Vectors. 2024; 17(1):338.

PMID: 39135087 PMC: 11318182. DOI: 10.1186/s13071-024-06414-2.

Leishmania spp. in equids and their potential vectors in endemic areas of canine leishmaniasis.

Carbonara M, Mendoza-Roldan J, Bezerra-Santos M, de Abreu Teles P, Lia R, Locantore F PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2024; 18(7):e0012290.

PMID: 39024365 PMC: 11257397. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0012290.

First molecular evidence of potential Culicoides vectors implicated in bluetongue virus transmission in Morocco.

Daif S, El Berbri I, Fassi Fihri O Parasit Vectors. 2024; 17(1):71.

PMID: 38374115 PMC: 10877861. DOI: 10.1186/s13071-024-06167-y.

Catalogue of the Diptera (Insecta) of Morocco- an annotated checklist, with distributions and a bibliography.

Kettani K, Ebejer M, Ackland D, Bachli G, Barraclough D, Bartak M Zookeys. 2022; 1094:1-466.

PMID: 35836978 PMC: 9018666. DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.1094.62644.

References

Mellor P, Boorman J, Baylis M . Culicoides biting midges: their role as arbovirus vectors. Annu Rev Entomol. 2000; 45:307-40. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.ento.45.1.307. View

Venter G, Graham S, Hamblin C . African horse sickness epidemiology: vector competence of south african Culicoides species for virus serotypes 3, 5 and 8. Med Vet Entomol. 2000; 14(3):245-50. DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2915.2000.00245.x. View

Lee V . Isolation of viruses from field populations of culicoides (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) in Nigeria. J Med Entomol. 1979; 16(1):76-9. DOI: 10.1093/jmedent/16.1.76. View

Caracappa S, Torina A, Guercio A, Vitale F, Calabro A, Purpari G . Identification of a novel bluetongue virus vector species of Culicoides in Sicily. Vet Rec. 2003; 153(3):71-4. DOI: 10.1136/vr.153.3.71. View

CLASTRIER J . [Ceratopogoninae. II. Some Culicoides of Algeria with spotted wings]. Arch Inst Pasteur Alger. 1957; 35(4):404-44. View

Edgar R . MUSCLE: multiple sequence alignment with high accuracy and high throughput. Nucleic Acids Res. 2004; 32(5):1792-7. PMC: 390337. DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkh340. View

Mellor P, Hamblin C . African horse sickness. Vet Res. 2004; 35(4):445-66. DOI: 10.1051/vetres:2004021. View

De Liberato C, Scavia G, Lorenzetti R, Scaramozzino P, Amaddeo D, Cardeti G . Identification of Culicoides obsoletus (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) as a vector of bluetongue virus in central Italy. Vet Rec. 2005; 156(10):301-4. DOI: 10.1136/vr.156.10.301. View

Paweska J, Venter G, Hamblin C . A comparison of the susceptibility of Culicoides imicola and C. bolitinos to oral infection with eight serotypes of epizootic haemorrhagic disease virus. Med Vet Entomol. 2005; 19(2):200-7. DOI: 10.1111/j.0269-283X.2005.00560.x. View

10.

Savini G, Goffredo M, Monaco F, Di Gennaro A, Cafiero M, Baldi L . Bluetongue virus isolations from midges belonging to the Obsoletus complex (Culicoides, Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) in Italy. Vet Rec. 2005; 157(5):133-9. DOI: 10.1136/vr.157.5.133. View

11.

Chaker E, Sfari M, Rabhi M, Rouis M, Babba H, Azaiez R . [Faunistic note on Culcoides (Diptera, Ceratopogonidae) from the governate of Monastir (Tunisia)]. Parasite. 2006; 12(4):359-61. DOI: 10.1051/parasite/2005124359. View

12.

Gomulski L, Meiswinkel R, Delecolle J, Goffredo M, Gasperi G . Phylogeny of the subgenus Culicoides and related species in Italy, inferred from internal transcribed spacer 2 ribosomal DNA sequences. Med Vet Entomol. 2006; 20(2):229-38. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2915.2006.00620.x. View

13.

Nolan D, Carpenter S, Barber J, Mellor P, Dallas J, Mordue Luntz A . Rapid diagnostic PCR assays for members of the Culicoides obsoletus and Culicoides pulicaris species complexes, implicated vectors of bluetongue virus in Europe. Vet Microbiol. 2007; 124(1-2):82-94. DOI: 10.1016/j.vetmic.2007.03.019. View

14.

Hammami S, Bouzid M, Hammou F, Fakhfakh E, Delecolle J . Occurrence of Culicoides spp. (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) in Tunisia, with emphasis on the bluetongue vector Culicoides imicola. Parasite. 2008; 15(2):179-81. DOI: 10.1051/parasite/2008152179. View

15.

Carpenter S, McArthur C, Selby R, WARD R, Nolan D, Mordue Luntz A . Experimental infection studies of UK Culicoides species midges with bluetongue virus serotypes 8 and 9. Vet Rec. 2008; 163(20):589-92. DOI: 10.1136/vr.163.20.589. View

16.

Kiehl E, Walldorf V, Klimpel S, Al-Quraishy S, Mehlhorn H . The European vectors of Bluetongue virus: are there species complexes, single species or races in Culicoides obsoletus and C. pulicaris detectable by sequencing ITS-1, ITS-2 and 18S-rDNA?. Parasitol Res. 2009; 105(2):331-6. DOI: 10.1007/s00436-009-1414-0. View

17.

Wilson A, Mellor P . Bluetongue in Europe: past, present and future. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2009; 364(1530):2669-81. PMC: 2865089. DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2009.0091. View

18.

Nielsen S, Nielsen B, Chirico J . Monitoring of biting midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae: Culicoides Latreille) on farms in Sweden during the emergence of the 2008 epidemic of bluetongue. Parasitol Res. 2010; 106(5):1197-203. DOI: 10.1007/s00436-010-1791-4. View

19.

Meiswinkel R, Gomulski L, Delecolle J, Goffredo M, Gasperi G . The taxonomy of Culicoides vector complexes - unfinished business. Vet Ital. 2010; 40(3):151-9. View

20.

Garros C, Mathieu B, Balenghien T, Cetre-Sossah C, Delecolle J . Suggesting synonymies? Comments on Kiehl et al. (2009) "the European vectors of Bluetongue virus: are there species complexes, single species or races in Culicoides obsoletus and C. pulicaris detectable by sequencing ITS-1, ITS-2 and 18S-rDNA?". Parasitol Res. 2010; 107(3):731-4. DOI: 10.1007/s00436-010-1921-z. View