Epipleoneura parmula sp. nov. (Odonata: Coenagrionidae: Protoneurinae) from Amazonian Ecuador

Epipleoneura parmula sp. nov. is described and illustrated based on males from eastern Ecuador (holotype: , ECUADOR, Orellana Province, Primavera, Laguna Taracoa {0.4652S, 76.7638W}, 247 m, 27 July 1977, Dennis R. Paulson & Susan Hills leg., in FSCA). Using the most recent synopsis of the genus (Pessacq 2014), the new species keys to the couplet separating E. pallida Rcenis and E. ocuene De Marmels, but unlike in those species, the epiproct branches are longer, fused nearly their entire length and their tips are accentuated. Adults were collected at a lake and several ponds, indicating that the habitat is lentic, although the nymph is unknown.

Mosquito and arbovirus activity during 1997-2002 in a wetland in northeastern Mississippi

The species composition and population dynamics of adult mosquitoes in a wetland near Iuka, MS, were analyzed over a 6-yr period (1997-2002) and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) detection rates of arboviruses determined during five of those years. Blood meals of three likely vector species were identified using a PCR-based method that allows identification of the host to species. Culex erraticus (Dyar & Knab) composed 51.9% of the population during the 6-yr period with 295 females collected per trap night. Eastern equine encephalomyelitis (EEE) virus was detected in six genera of mosquitoes [Coquillettidia perturbans (Walker), Culex restuans Theobald, Culex salinarius Coquillett, Culex erraticus (Dyar & Knab), Anopheles crucians Wiedemann, Anopheles quadrimaculatus Say, Aedes vexans (Meigen), Ochlerotatus triseriatus Say, and Psorophora ferox Humboldt) with positive pools occurring in 1998, 1999, and 2002. Culiseta melanura Coquillett occurred at a low level (< 1%) and was not infected. Saint Louis encephalitis virus was detected once in a single pool of Cx. erraticus in 1998. Neither West Nile virus nor LaCrosse virus was found. Minimum infection rates per 1000 females tested of competent vectors of EEE virus were variable and ranged from 0.14 for Cx. erraticus to 40.0 for Oc. triseriatus. Thirty-nine species of birds were identified in the focus with blood-engorged mosquitoes found to contain meals (n = 29) from eight avian species. The majority of meals was from the great blue heron, Ardea herodias L. (n = 55%), but when bird abundance data were adjusted for avian mass, the brown-headed cowbird, Molothrus ater (Boddaert); blue jay, Cyanocitta cristata (L.); and northern mockingbird, Mimus polyglottos (L.), were overrepresented as hosts.