Culicoides imicola
| Culicoides imicola | ||||||||||||
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Culicoides imicola |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Culicoides imicola | ||||||||||||
| Kieffer , 1913 |
Culicoides imicola is a mosquito belonging to the midges family.
It has a weight of only 1/1700 gram and is mainly active between March and October, especially in the morning and evening hours. This information applies at least to the temperate climates of the northern hemisphere. Like all Culicoides, it is nocturnal in the tropics and subtropics . The flight height of the Culicoides imicola is no more than approx. 3 m.
Only the females are bloodsuckers .
These insects multiply in damp places, such as B. on bog soils and under tree bark.
Occurrence
Probably originally native to the tropical and subtropical zones of Africa and Asia, this mosquito has spread to the temperate zones worldwide in the course of global warming due to strong winds and as a stowaway in aircraft.
Culicoides imicola as a disease vector
The Culicoides imicola is now known in many parts of the world, along with other blood-sucking insects, as a vector ( vector ) of two different viruses and the diseases they cause:
- the bluetongue virus (BTV), the causative agent of bluetongue disease that occurs in ruminants , especially sheep and cattle ,
- the African Horse Sickness Virus (AHS), the causative agent of African horse sickness .
This blood-sucking insect ingests the virus circulating in the blood of an already infected animal during the sucking act. After a biological cycle of reproduction of the virus in the insect, during which the virus also gets into the salivary gland, it transfers it to another animal that may not yet be infected when it next eats.
