A burgundy‐red pigment acquired by the tissue lining the abdominal wall during development of the ovarian follicles is invariably present in gravid Culicoides. The pigment persists after oviposition and can be detected in unengorged females with undeveloped ovaries with the aid of a dissecting microscope. The presence or absence of the pigment provides a method for recognition of individual nulliparous and parous empty Culicoides without dissection. It may be applied to living as well as refrigerated or deep frozen material and specimens stored in alcohol or cleared in creosote and mounted in baisam. Using this method conspecific series have been sorted according to sex, the females graded as blood‐engorged, gravid, nulliparous empty or parous empty and the numbers counted, at the rate of more than 1000 flies/hr.

The Immaculatus Group of Culicoides encompassing four species from Australia, New Caledonia, Fiji, Solomon Islands, New Guinea and the Malay archipelago is revised. A diagnosis for the group, descriptions of males and females of C. shivasi sp. n. and C. collessi sp. n., a description of the male of C. immaculatus Lee & Reye, a redescription of the female of C. immaculatus and a diagnosis of C. agas Wirth & Hubert together with keys for their specific determination are pre-sented. Specific separation of the morphologically similar C. shivasi and C. immaculatus is supported by DNA barcodes (mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I or COI) and nuclear carbomoylphosphate synthetase (CAD) sequence data.

The monophyly of the Imicola complex, a natural species complex within subgenus C. subgen. Avaritia Fox of the biting midge genus Culicoides Latreille, is supported using morphological and molecular analyses. A diagnosis for the group along with comparative redescriptions of the male and female of the species represented in Australasia, C. brevitarsis Kieffer and C. nudipalpis Delfinado and a description of C. asiatica Bellis sp. nov., are presented together with keys for their specific determination and molecular support for their status.

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