INVESTIGATION OF COLICOIDES (DIPTERA, CERATOPOGONIDAE) IN RELATION TOTHE TRANSMISSION OF BOVINE ONCHOCERCA AND OTHER FILARIAE IN CENTRAL KYUSHU, JAPAN

In Kyushu, Japan, where a human case of zoonotic onchocerciasis was fo und, a survey was conducted to know if the bovine Onchocerca species o f this region, O. gutlurosa, O. lienalis and O. sp., which develop in local Simulium spp., were also transmitted by Culicoides. A fetal of 1 7,006 out of 42,582 Females of eight Culicoides species captured by li ght-traps from May to November in 1989 and 1990 at two cattle sheds, o ne in Oita and one in Kumamoto, were dissected and examine for Onchoce rca infection. Overall results showed that none of the species had fil arial infections except 4 of 946 C. arokawae, an ornithophilic species , collected in Oita which harboured filarial larvae with a short tail, belonging to Lemdoninae. Unsheathed microfilariae indistinguishable f rom O. lienalis or O. gutlurosa were found in the midgut of only one b lood-fed C. matsuzawai collected in Oita. It is concluded that Culicoi des species would not be vectors of these three bovine Onchocerca spec ies. Additional collections of Culicoides in a residential area of Oit a showed that several filarial species, Lemdaninae and Splendidofilari inae, probably from birds, are transmitted by. C. arakawae.