Mosquito Taxonomic Inventory

Loew (1850) mentioned a species of Culex in Baltic amber that was difficult to distinguish from Cx. pipiens and its nearest relatives. Helm (1896) stated that he possessed Baltic amber that contained both sexes of Cx. pipiens, and this led Keilbach (1982) to list Cx. pipiens as a species preserved in Baltic amber. Because Cx. pipiens is an extant species, further study may show that the fossil is Cx. erikae or an undescribed species (Poinar et al., 2000).