Culicoides

A genus of minute biting gnats or midges, vectors of several nonpathogenic human filariae (Mansonella, Dipetalonema), of Onchocerca in horses and cattle, and of several viral agents of domestic sheep and fowl. [L. culex, gnat]

- C. austeni species that is an intermediate host of the filarial worm, Mansonella perstans, chiefly in equatorial Africa.

- C. furens species that is a vector of Mansonella ozzardi, in the West Indies.

- C. milnei a species that is one of the vectors of Mansonella perstans in West Africa.

* * *

Cu·li·coi·des .kyü-lə-'kȯid-.ēz n a genus of bloodsucking midges (family Ceratopogonidae) of which some are intermediate hosts of filarial parasites

* * *

Cu·li·coi·des (ku-lĭ-koiґdēz) a genus of biting flies of the family Heleidae; some are vectors for viral diseases such as bluetongue and African horse sickness. C. ausґteni and C. graґhami are intermediate hosts of the parasitic roundworm Mansonella perstans. C. fuґrens and possibly other species are intermediate hosts of M. ozzardi.