Culicoides biting midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) are small (1-3mm) biting flies capable of transmitting numerous pathogens of veterinary and medical importance. In addition to female blood-feeding, both male and female midges must take sugar meals throughout their adult lives to support energetically expensive behaviors such as flying. This study investigated natural sources of sugar meals for biting midges in a tallgrass prairie ecosystem in Kansas, USA in 2023 and 2024 using molecular detection of plant DNA within field collected midges.
In the \"Sugar_PopData_AgDataCommons.csv\" file, the site, date, Culicoides species, sex, and physiological status of females (nulliparous, parous, gravid, bloodfed, or unknown), as well as the total number of midges collected are listed as columns. These data describe the entire collection effort for the two years of this study, conducted from August to September 2023 and May to September 2024. A subset of these collections (788 specimens total) were used for the sugar meal detection study and are listed in a separate dataset.
The \"SugarMatches_AgDataCommons.csv\" dataset lists the sample number, site, midge species, sex, physiological status (for females only), extraction method used (1-3, described in detail in manuscript), whether DNA was present (samples 301-788 only), whether a plant match was successfully made, the primer set (rbcLa or trnH-psbA), sequence category (HC=High confidence, MC=medium confidence, LC=low confidence), % sequence quality, sequence length (# base pairs), % pairwise identity match, % query cover, and E-score. For samples that achieved a \"HC\" sequence category, the species, genus, and family are listed when there was consensus out of NCBI Blast in the top 3 matches returned. For samples with an \"MC\" score, only the genus and family are listed. For samples with an \"LC\" score, only the family is listed. If one of these taxonomic categories is missing within a sequence category, it indicates that consensus was not reached within NCBI Blast and the lowest taxonomic level retained was that which had consensus. This data set also includes an indication of whether double peaks were observed in the sequence chromatogram (Yes=1, No=2), and whether the genus and family are known to be present at the site where the collections occurred (Konza Prairie Biological Station; Yes=1, No=2).
", "distribution": [{"@type": "dcat:Distribution", "downloadURL": "https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/63375798", "format": "csv", "mediaType": "text/csv", "title": "Sugar_PopData_AgDataCommons.csv"}, {"@type": "dcat:Distribution", "downloadURL": "https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/63375801", "format": "csv", "mediaType": "text/csv", "title": "SugarMatches_AgDataCommons.csv"}], "identifier": "10.15482/USDA.ADC/31821592.v1", "keyword": ["ATSB", "Attractive Toxic Sugar Bait", "Culicoides", "Phytophagy", "Sugar Meal Analysis", "Vector Ecology"], "license": "https://www.usa.gov/publicdomain/label/1.0/", "modified": "2026-06-11", "programCode": ["005:040"], "publisher": {"@type": "org:Organization", "name": "Agricultural Research Service"}, "spatial": "{\"type\": \"MultiPoint\", \"coordinates\": [[-96.55932339388801, 39.11312117700621], [-96.55711878991504, 39.11349664534853], [-96.56288806087078, 39.10630838234985], [-96.59112036518327, 39.10432135071056], [-96.57746782051866, 39.087919781219]]}", "temporal": "2023-08-01/2024-09-25", "title": "Data from: Natural sugar-source associations of Culicoides biting midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) in a Kansas tallgrass prairie"}