Greetings. Thus far, 1998 has been productive from our review of the literature on Ceratopogonidae, and notes from other scientists.

    I encourage any who are able to participate in the 4^th International Congress of Dipterology (ICD4), at Oxford University, England in September 1998. We are excited about the abstracts (250+) submitted for the ICD4 and 15+ abstracts for the Ceratopogonidae Workshop.

    In the way of good news, bad news, it is certainly bad news for Ceratopogonid research. I report the significant loss and end of great Ceratopogonid Research Center, as I learned from Dr. Michelle Kremer, Professor of Faculté de Médecine, Laboratorie de Parasitologie et de Pathologie Tropicale, at Louis Pasteur University, Strasbourg that he has retired as of May 1. And further that in addition to his retirement, that there is no one else working on ceratopogonids in Dr. Kremer's lab at Strasbourg, France.

    In addition, and with further bad news, we also regret to learn of the recent retirement of the Dr. Robert C. Lowrie, Jr., Professor and Medical Entomologist at Tulane University, Louisiana. Dr. Lowrie has worked on filariasis disease vectored by Culicoides. It is always good news to reach the point in one's career to be able to retire, but it is sad (and bad news) that so many of our scholars of Ceratopogonidae are retiring.

    However, on the good news side, there are some new scholars (ex. Mark Breidenbaugh - Univ. of California at Riverside, Deborah Brickle - Georgia Southern University/ Clemson University, South Carolina, etc.) coming out of our colleges and universities who have some large shoes to fill, but who strive to make a place in the field.
                                                                                                Thanks,
                                                                                                Daniel V. Hagan, Ph.D.
Summary of CIE Contents:
Announcements ................................................................. 2
Contributions from Cerat. Scientists ................................... 4
Recent Literature on Ceratopogonidae ............................... 8

For CIE Participants, please send me your e-mail address to dhagan@GaSoU.edu

    The scientific program will include plenary sessions, sections, workshops and poster sessions. The general areas of interest are: Morphology, physiology and ultrastructure; Medical, veterinary and forensic Diptera; Agricultural Diptera; Behavior and ecology; Biodiversity and conservation; Advances in systematics; Cytology and genetics; Control; and Collections and databases.

Sections will be organized according to the level of interest in individual topics. Taxon-based workshops will be arranged as in previous Congresses, based on the interests expressed by delegates. There will be a Ceratopogonidae Section.

Correspondence If you are interested in participating in the Congress, please register your interest by writing or sending an e-mail to the Congress administrator, Oxford International.

Letters of invitation On request, the secretariat of the Congress will send a personal invitation for participation in the Congress. It should be understood that such an invitation is only meant to help visitors raise travel funds or to obtain a visa, and is not a commitment on the part of the organizers to provide financial support.

Accommodations in Keble College, where a range of student study-bedrooms is available. In addition, there are several good hotels nearby.

Meetings Plenary sessions and an informal reception will be held in the Oxford University Museum, and the opening reception will be in Oxford Town Hall.

Social program The historic city of Oxford and its surroundings has much to offer the visitor. Many buildings date back to the 12^th and 13^th centuries. A guided walking tour of Oxford, the colleges and museums, a visit to Blenheim Palace, a day trip to Stratford upon Avon with a performance by the Royal Shakespeare Company are among the social events on offer to Congress delegates. Other pre- or post-Congress visits and tours can be arranged.

Field and laboratory visits In addition to the social program, a number of field trips will be on offer, in the Oxford area or further afield. Liaison for visits to museums, research institutes and other academic or professional organizations can be arranged.

Costs Provisional costs are as follows: The registration fee will be in the order of GBP190. The cost of accommodation for six nights in Keble College (bed, breakfast, lunch) will be from GBP 222-252, with dinner also available in Keble at GBP13 each night. Hotel accommodation for six nights will be from GBP600-720 per person, bed & breakfast.

Addresses for correspondence:
    Chairman: Dr David J. de C. Henshaw, 34 Waltham Road, Waltham Abbey, Essex EN9 3AR, UK. Email: djhagro@aol.com
    Congress Administration: Catherine Hughes, ICD4, Oxford International, Summertown Pavilion, Middle Way, Oxford OX2 7LG, UK. Phone: +44 1865 511550; Fax: +44 1865 511570; Email: 101475.1765@compuserve.com
    The Congress URL (address) for those have access to the World-Wide Web is:
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/entomology/diptcong.html

The Ceratopogonidae Section at the 4^th INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF DIPTEROLOGY is developing nicely. The Organizers of the Ceratopogonidae Section are Alison Blackwell (UK) and Daniel V. Hagan (USA).

    The 1998 Biting Fly Workshop will be held June 12-15, 1998, hosted by the Department of Biology of Georgia Southern University (Drs. Sturgis McKeever, Frank French and Dan Hagan) at Blackwater Falls State Park Lodge, Davis, West Virginia.
    The Park has 1,688 acres, and except for the canyon is relatively flat. Most of the area is covered with deciduous forest with some red spruce. There is a small lake surrounded by several acres of grassy vegetation and there is a small grassy area near the lodge. There are numerous trails from the Lodge leading to magnificent venues.
    There will be more extensive report of events in November 1998 issue of CIE.

    I am continuing the studies on neotropical predator midge of genus Monohelea, I described with Spinelli a new species from Uraguay (in press). I am working on a redescription of M. aguirrei Tavares & Souza because the authors in the original description confounded 2 species, including the paratypes specimens of maculipennis, which were also used to describe aguirrei. After this, I will complete a paper on the revision of the neotropical Monohelea. I am also working on Culicoides and other genera, collected in light traps, in different municipalities of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil , in collaboration of FEEMA (Fundaco Estadual de Engenharia do Meio Ambiente).
    Please note the new publication about neotropical Monohelea:
Felippe-Bauer,M.L.; Spinelli,G.R. 1998. A New Neotropical species of Monohelea Kieffer from Uruguay (Diptera:Ceratopogonidae). Mem. Inst. Oswaldo Cruz 93(1): 63-64.

    Please pass on the following to the list of references in the CIE:
Borkent, A. 1997. Upper and Lower Creataceous Biting Midges (Ceratopogonidae: Diptera) from Hungarian and Austrian amber and the Koonwarra Fossil Bed of Australia. Stuttgarter Beitrage zur Naturkunde. Serie B. 249, 10 pp.

    We are continuing to work on Culicoides variipennis sonorensis here in southern California, especially on our confinement dairies. The pace has slowed somewhat pending the next round of grant proposals, which are in the mill now. Alec Gerry (Ph.D. student) is working diligently on data analyses from the field bluetongue epidemiology project. Mark Breidenbaugh (M.S. student now working for the Los Angeles County West Vector Control District as a vector ecologist) and I recently submitted a paper to Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash. describing all life stages of two new Culicoides species from southern California and Baja, Mexico.
    I most recently have been writing up a short paper for the Journal of Invertebrate Pathology on natural and experimental iridescent virus infections in C. v. sonorensis larvae. We have not surveyed systematically for this pathogen, but it is common at one of our field sites (ca. 10% infection in L1 hosts, decreasing in prevalence in older host age groups). The most interesting aspect of this is that the virus, by itself, has extremely low infectivity and is a negligible mortality factor. However, it is very stable in aquatic environments. In the presence of mermithid (Heleidomermis magnapapula) preparasites, which appear to provide the virus with an entry point into the hemocoell as they penetrate the host cuticle, the virus is quite virulent. Unfortunately, the virus infection outstrips mermithid development, resulting in death of both the host larva and the mermithid. In this scenario an inferior pathogen (iridescent virus) significantly impairs a superior natural enemy (mermithid) and is detrimental to biological control. Fortunately, the virus does not tolerate drying well, and many of the most productive C. v. sonorensis habitats are ephemeral.

    Glad to hear from Ed Schmidtmann at the USDA, Laramie Lab telling me that our joint paper (Fred Holbrook, Walter Tabachnick., Ron Bobian & C. McKinnon) is now under the ARS/USDA review process. FYI, this paper is the one in which we formally resolve the Culicoides variipennis complex and elevate each (varipennis, sonorensis, and occidentalis) to full species rank. It's full title is "Sympatry in the Culicoides variipennis complex: A taxonomic reassessment."

    Effective May 4, 1998 I became the entomologist for the Monroe County Mosquito Control District. I will be working out of the Marathon, Florida, office, but at present I have only the address and phone number for the Key West office. I will have to devote most of my time to mosquito control, of course, but I hope that I will be able to do a little bit of work with Ceratopogonidae when I have some time. I have a note on Dasyhelea pseudoincisurata coming out later this year in the journal Entomological News. It consists of some morphological and biological observations that I made on some larvae living in artificial containers.
    New contact information: Monroe County Mosquito Control District, 5224 College Road, Stock Island, Key West, FL 33040; 305-296-2484 (voice), 305-296-4808 (fax), gringo1122@hotmail.com (email).

    At present, I'm working (not full time) on ecology of Culicoides belkini and Culicoides insulanus, 2 hematophagous Culicoides present in French Polynesia.
    I'll finish my stay in French Polynesia around the end of this year. So, if some of the participants are interested in having some specimen or any information on those species before I leave, please let me know.

Frederic LARDEUX
Medical Entomologist
ORSTOM / Institut Malarde
B.P. 30
Papeete - Tahiti
French Polynesia
Fax: (689) 42 95 55 or (689) 43 15 9

    From May 1996 to June 1997, the ecology of biting midges (Culicoides: Ceratopogonidae) of the organic polluted marsh Egeløkke Lung, Langeland was studied. The density of larvae and the larval growth were monitored in mud-samples; the hatching and flight activity of adults were recorded by means of emergence traps and a light trap respectively.
    In the light trap 28 Culicoides species were recorded, including 3 species new to Denmark. C. punctatus, C. duddingstoni and C. obsoletus were predominant, constituting > 80 % of the catch.
   In May, prior to the main emergence of adult midges, the average larval density was > 13000 m^-2. Four distinct summer maxima in larval density were found and the larval size varied correspondingly. In autumn, prior to hibernation, the larval density in the mud was high. The variation in larval density and growth reflects the population dynamics af the larval generations, pupation and hatching of adults and the recruitment of newly hatched larvae originating from the oviposition of successive summer generations. In the ligt trap biting midges were recorded from early June to late October, however, the seasonal activity pattern of the species differed considerably.
    A mathematical simulation model calculating the daily number of adult midges showed a fine coincidence between simulated and observed activity maxima of C. punctatus. After adjustment the model is expected to predict adult population maxima, i.e. periods when pastured cattle are liable to a heavy load of biting midges.
    In the early seventies C. nubeculosus, i.e. a species associated with eutrophic, bare mud flats, was predominant in the site. Since then this species has declined rapidly and the actual fauna is dominated by species mainly breeding in habitats covered by vegetation. The change in species composition reflects the gradual overgrowing of Egeløkke Lung. Further, the outlet of not purified sewage has ceased. Still several of the species recorded are tolerant of organic pollution.
    Today Egeløkke Lung is the breeding site of a Culicoides fauna rich in species, some of them occurring in very high densities, e.g. notorious cattle-biting species. Actually, the larval densities recorded are considerably higher than those found in the early seventies.
    The investigations in Egeløkke Lung are to be continued in 1998 with special reference to the problems the biting midges may cause through their blood-feeding on pastured cattle in a field experiment.

    Concerning our research, at the moment we have collected adults and we are able to recognize the species of Ceratopogonidae, but we don't work for the field control or to find any biological system to kill the larvae or the adults because we don't have money for this field.
    We officially work a lot with mosquitoes, ticks and we also do some research with flies and phlebotomus. We are looking to have more material possible about the Ceratopogonidae control and all the problems they can bring.

Dott. Eva Veronesi
c/o Centro Agricoltura Ambiente
Via di mezzo levante, 2233
40014 - Crevalcore
Bologna ITALY

AbuElzein, E. M. E.; M. A. Sandouka; A. I. AlAfaleq; O. B. Mohamed; J. R. B. Flamand. 1998. Arbovirus infections of ruminants in Al-Rub Al-Khali desert. Veterinary Record 142: 196-197.

Afshar, A.; J. Anderson; K. H. Nielsen; J. E. Pearson; H. C. Trotter; T. R. Woolhouse; J. A. Thevasagayam; D. E. J. Gall; J. M. Lapointe; G. A. Gustafson. 1997. Evaluation of a competitive ELISA for detection of antibodies to epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus of deer. Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation 9: 309-311.

Aradaib, I. E.; C. E. Schore; J. S. Cullor; B. I. Osburn. 1998. A nested PCR for detection of North American isolates of bluetongue virus based on NS1 genome sequence analysis of BTV-17. Veterinary Microbiology 59: 99-108.

Bansal, O. B.; A. Stokes; A. Bisal; D. Bishop; P. Roy. 1998. Membrane organization of bluetongue virus nonstructural glycoprotein NS3. Journal of Virology 72: 3362-3369.

Bhat, M. N.; R. Manickam; W. Aruni. 1998. Detection of bluetongue antibody and antigen in Indian elephants, spotted deer and blackbucks. Indian Journal of Animal Sciences 68: 135.

Blackhall, J.; A. Fuentes; K. Hansen; G. Magnusson. 1997. Serine protein-kinase activity associated with rotavirus phosphoprotein NSP5. Journal of Virology 71: 138-144.

Borkent, A. 1997. Upper and lower Cretaceous biting midges (Ceratopogonidae: Diptera) from Hungarian and Austrian Amber and Koonwarra Fossil Bed of Australia. Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde, Serie B (Geologie und Paläontologie) 249: 1-10.

Braverman, Y.; F. Chechik. 1996. Air streams and the introduction of animal diseases borne on Culicoides (Diptera, Ceratopogonidae) into Israel. Revue Scientifique Et Technique De L Office International Des Epizooties 15: 1037-1052.

Brewer, A. W.; B. I. Osburn. 1998. Sequential distribution of neurovirulent and avirulent strains of bluetongue virus in neonatal mice by RT-PCR. Archives of Virology 143: 145-155.

Cheney, I. W.; M. Yamakawa; P. Roy; J. O. Mecham; W. C. Wilson. 1996. Molecular characterization of the segment-2 gene of epizootic hemorrhagic-disease virus serotype-2-gene sequence and genetic diversity. Virology 224: 555-560.

Clastrier, J.; J-C. Delécolle. 1997. Description de Forcipomyia (Trichohelea) roubaudi n. sp., ectoparasite d'un Hétéroptère Réduvide capturé dans la canopée de la forêt guyanise (Diptera, Ceratopogonidae). Bulletin de la Societe entomologique de France 102(4): 379-383.

Das, S. C.; S. Mishra; N. Mishra; P. S. K. Bhagwan. 1997. Comparison of competitive ELISA, indirect ELISA and agar-gel precipitation test for the detection of bluetongue virus antibodies in sheep. Indian Journal of Animal Sciences 67: 1033-1035.

Delécolle, J-C.; Y. Braverman. 1996. A new species of Atrichopogon from Israel (Diptera; Ceratopogonidae). Memoir Entomol. Soc. Wash. 18: 101-107.

Felippe-Bauer, M.. L.; Spinelli, G. R. 1998. A New Neotropical species of Monohelea Kieffer from Uruguay (Diptera:Ceratopogonidae). Mem. Inst. Oswaldo Cruz 93(1): 63-64.

Gillian, A. L.; M. L. Nibert. 1998. Amino terminus of reovirus nonstructural protein sigma NS is important for ssRNA binding and nucleoprotein complex formation. Virology 240: 1-11.

Jones, L. D.; T. Chuma T; R. Hails; T. Williams; P. Roy P. 1996. The nonstructural proteins of bluetongue virus are a dominant source of cytotoxic T-cell peptide determinants. Journal of General Virology 77: 997-1003.

Kakker, N. K.; G. Prasad; R. N. Srivastava; P. Bhatnagar. 1996. Sentinel herd as tool for studying bluetongue virus infection in four northern states of India. Indian J. Anim. Sci. 66: 1254-1257.

Lavakumar, P.; D. Sreenivasulu; M. V. Subba Rao; P. Sreenivasulu. 1997. Serodiagnosis of bluetongue virus (BTV) infection with the antigen prepared from BTV infected BHK sub(21) cell culture supernatants. Indian J. Virol. 13: 113-115.

Liao, H. J.; V. Stollar. 1997. Characterization of JKT-7400, an orbivirus which grows in Aedes albopictus mosquito cells - evidence pointing to a minor virion protein, VP6, as the RNA guanylyltransferase. Virology 228: 19-28.

Lobato, Z. I. P.; B. E. H. Coupar; C. P. Gray; R. Lunt; M. E. Andrew. 1997. Antibody responses and protective immunity to recombinant vaccinia virus-expressed bluetongue virus antigens. Vet. Immunol. Immunopathol. 59: 291-306.

Maree, S.; S. Durbach; H. Huismans. 1998. Intracellular production of African horsesickness virus core-like particles by expression of the two major core proteins, VP3 and VP7, in insect cells. Journal of General Virology 79: 333-337.

Mishra, S.; M. L. Mehrotra. 1998. Evaluation of quick and precise diagnostic tests for bluetongue. Indian Journal of Animal Sciences 68: 203-205.

Monastyrskaya K.; N. Staeuber; G. Sutton; P. Roy. 1997. Effects of domain-switching and site-directed mutagenesis on the properties and functions of the VP7 proteins of 2 orbiviruses Virology 237: 217-227.

Mullens, B. A.; K. A. Luhring. 1998. Age-dependent parasitism of Culicoides variipennis sonorensis (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) by Heleidomermis magnapapula (Nematoda: Mermithidae) and considerations for assessing parasite impact. Biological Control 11:49-57.

Mweene, A. S.; G. S. Pandey; P. Sinyangwe; A. Nambota; K. Samui; H. Kida. 1996. Viral diseases of livestock in Zambia. Jap. J. Vet. Res 44: 89-105.

Nunamaker, R. A.; J. O. Mecham; F. R. Holbrook; J. A. Lockwood. 1997. Applications of DOT-BLOT, ELISA, and immunoelectron microscopy to field detection of bluetongue virus in Culicoides variipennis sonorensis - an ecological perspective. Journal of Medical Entomology 34: 24-28.

Ortega, M. D.; J. E. Lloyd; F. R. Holbrook. 1997. Seasonal and geographical distrubution of Culicoides imicola kieffer (Diptera, Ceratopogonidae in southwestern Spain. Journal of The American Mosquito Control Association 13: 227-232.

Rahman, A. H.; R. Manickam. 1997. Toxorhynchites-fluorescent antibody system for the detection of bluetongue virus from Culicoides midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae). Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research 64: 301-307.

Ramadevi, N.; J. Rodriguez; P. Roy. 1998. A leucine zipper-like domain is essential for dimerization and encapsidation of bluetongue virus nucleocapsid protein VP4. Journal of Virology 72: 2983-2990.

Roy, P. 1996. Multiple gene expression in Baculovirus system - Third generation vaccines for bluetongue disease and African horsesickness disease. Annals of The New York Academy of Sciences 791: 318-332.

Tiller, B. L.; G. E. Dagle; L. L. Cadwell. 1997. Testicular atrophy in a mule deer population. Journal of Wildlife Diseases 33: 420-429.

Tsuboi,T.; T. Imada. 1997. Effect of bovine herpes virus-1, bluetongue virus and akabane virus on the in-vitro development of bovine embryos. Veterinary Microbiology 57: 135-142.

Venter, G.J.; E. M. Nevill; T. C. D. VanderLinde. 1997. Seasonal abundance and parity of stock-associated Culicoides species (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) in different climatic regions in southern Africa in relation to their viral vector potential. Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research 64: 259-271.

Vreede, F. T.; H. Huismans. 1998. Sequence analysis of the RNA polymerase gene of African horse sickness virus. Archives of Virology 143: 413-419.

Ward, M. P.; T. E. Carpenter. 1996. Simulation modeling of the effect of climatic factors on bluetongue virus-infection in Australian cattle herds .1. model formulation, verification and validation. Preventive Veterinary Medicine 27: 1-12.

Ward, M. P.; W. M. Doherty; S. J. Johnson. 1997. Association between risk of seroconversion of sentinel cattle to bluetongue viruses and Culicoides species (Diptera, Ceratopogonidae) in Queensland, Australia. Preventive Veterinary Medicine 32: 267-274.

Weir, R. P.; M. B. Harmsen; N. T. Hunt; S. D. Blacksell; R. A. Lunt; L. I. Pritchard; K. M. Newberry; A. D. Hyatt; A. R. Gould; L. F. Melville. 1997. EHDV-1, a new Australian serotype of epizootic haemorrhagic disease virus isolated from sentinel cattle in the Northern Territory. Veterinary Microbiology 58: 135-143.

Wohlsein P.; J. F. Pohlenz; F. L. Davidson; J. S. Salt; C. Hamblin. 1997. Immunohistochemical demonstration of African horse-sickness viral-antigen in formalin-fixed equine tissues. Veterinary Pathology 34: 568-574.

Woods, L. W.; R. S. Hanley; P. H. Chiu; M. Burd; R. W. Nordhausen; M. H. Stillian; P. K. Swift. 1997. Experimental adenovirus hemorrhagic-disease in yearling black-tailed deer. Journal of Wildlife Diseases 33: 801-811.

Yeruham, I.; D. David. 1997. Bluetongue virus serotype 16 in a three-month-old lamb. Journal of The South African Veterinary Association 68: 110.

Zheng, Y. Z.; R. Webb; P. F. Greenfield; S. Reid. 1996. Improved method for counting virus and virus-like particles. Journal of Virological Methods 62: 153-159.