3 ilus. 18 ref.

Female adults of Culicoides phlebotomus were observed feeding on the carapace of an egg-laying leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea, Dermochelydidae) in Costa Rica. Although female adults of C. phlebotomus have been previously recorded as feeding on humans and dogs in the Caribbean and Central America and are known to transmit a human filarial parasite, these features are probably secondary. The particular feeding behaviour of the midge on the leatherback turtle and the more or less congruent geographical distributions of these 2 species suggests that the marine turtles may be the original host of C. phlebotomus.