Culiseta arenivaga

The head is generally light brown, darker behind the eyes, with narrow curved pale golden scales mesially, and flat pale scales laterally.[1] The antennae are reddish brown at the base and dark distally. The palps and proboscis have black scales.[1] The thorax is a bright light reddish brown, with bare submedian stripes on the scutum and scattered fine black narrow curved scales and bristles on either side.[1] The scutellum is sparsely scaled, and the postnotum is light brown.[1] The abdomen is generally dark-scaled with purplish reflections, with a pale sternite.[1]

The wings are dark-scaled with long, narrow plume scales, the halteres are pale with a dark-scaled knob, and the legs are generally dark-scaled .[1] The proboscis is approximately 1.5 times the length of the femur of the first pair of legs, the antennae are shorter than the proboscis, and the palp is one-sixth the length of the proboscis including the labella .[1]

The type specimens, all females, were collected during overcast and showery conditions in a forest of hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamil) planted in carrol (Backhousia myrtifolia) scrub and in close proximity to a fresh water creek fringed by rainforest.[1] They showed no sign of engorgement with blood but whether they attempted to bite is not known.[1]

C. arenivaga is named from the latin words describing its habitat, arenosus meaning "sandy" and vagus meaning "wanderer", thus "a wanderer in sandy places."[1]