Picky eaters are rare: DNA-based blood meal analysis of Culicoides (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) species from the United States

Table 1 Results from molecular blood meal analyses based on the cytochrome c oxidase I (cox1) and the cytochrome b (cytb) genes for Culicoides species in North America

			Mammals										Birds
Culicoides species	State	n	Cattle	Dog	Goat	Donkey	Horse	Black-tailed Jackrabbit	Black-tailed deer	White-tailed deer	Sheep	Swine	Emu	House finch
C. biguttatus	New York	9								9
C. crepuscularis	California	1												1
C. reevesi	California	1							1
C. stellifer	New York	4								4
C. utahensis	California	1							1
C. variipennis species complex
C. occidentalis	California	120	14	9	1	1	14	7	51		18	1	4
C. variipennis complex^a	California/ South Carolina	63	17	2		1	8	4	21		6	2	2
Total		199	31	11	1	2	22	11	74	13	24	3	6	1

^a Culicoides variipennis complex includes individuals morphologically identified as belonging to the C. variipennis species complex, but precise species identification could not be made because no genetic data were available or they grouped in cluster B or C in the neighbor-joining tree (Fig. 1)
Presented in the table are Culicoides species, the state where collected, sample size (n), number of host species identifications from blood meals. The host species are: black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus); black-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus californicus); cattle (Bos taurus); domestic dog (Canis familiaris); domestic goat (Capra hircus); domestic sheep (Ovis aries); donkey (Equus asinus); horse (Equus. caballus); swine (Sus scofa); white-tailed deer (O. virginianus); emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae); house finch (Haemorhous mexicanus)

ISSN: 1756-3305