Mosquito Taxonomic Inventory

January 2012:

• (31 Jan) Correction: The Gelidus Subgroup, incorrectly listed as belonging to the Pipiens Group (also by Harbach, 1911), is an informal monobasic taxon of the Sitiens Group of Culex subgenus Culex. The affinities of two species previously listed as members of the Subgroup, Cx. bihamatus Edwards and Cx. vicinus (Taylor), are uncertain (Sirivanakarn, 1976); hence, they are included as unplaced members of the Sitiens Group. Also see Rattanarithikul et al. (2005).
  

• (22 Jan) Addition of Anopheles aitkenii britanniae Strickland & Chowdhury, 1931 to the list of taxa included in subgenus Anopheles Meigen. Strickland & Chowdhury (1931: 2, 3, 12) proposed the name britanniae for a morphological "variety" of Anopheles aitkenii James in India. This nominal varietal form, which is listed as a valid taxon in the global catalogue of Anopheles published by Senevet (1958: 35), is listed as a nomen nudum, spelled brittaniae, in the catalogues of Stone et al. (1959: 287) and Knight & Stone (1977: 365). No information pertaining to the emendation of britanniae (brittaniae appears to be a lapsus) or its taxonomic status could be found in the published literature or the taxon files that were compiled by Stone et al. and Knight & Stone during the preparation of the 1959 and 1977 catalogues. The name cannot be regarded as a nomen nudum because it meets the criteria of availability for species-group names published after 1930 (ICZN, 1999: Article 13) – the authors provided morphological characters that purportedly differentiate the taxon (p. 12). Because britanniae was proposed expressly for a varietal entity, it has subspecific rank from its original publication (ICZN, 1999: Article 45.6.4). See Harbach & Howard (2007) for corrections in the status and rank of names used to denote other varietal forms of mosquitoes. 

• (18 Jan) Completion of page for genus Dahliana.

November 2011:

• (28 Nov) Culex (Culex) huangae Meng is included as an unplaced species of the Pipiens Group. This species was previously placed in the Pipiens Subgroup (see Harbach, 2011), apparently based solely on the author's statement (Meng, 1958) that the species is closely related to Culex quinquefasciatus. However, it is obvious from Meng's illustrations of the male genitalia and the illustrations of the larva and male genitalia by Lu Baolin et al. (1997) that the species is not closely related to members of the Pipiens Subgroup. 

• (16 Nov) Completion of page for genus Aztecaedes.

• (9 Nov) Completion of page for genus Christophersiomyia. 

• (2 Nov) Changes and additions to page for genus Borichinda. Completion of page for genus Belkinius.

• (1 Nov) Changes and additions to page for genus Bothaella.

October 2011:

• (24 Oct) Synonymy of Aedes (Howardina) grabhami Berlin, 1969 with Howardina aureostriata Grabham, 1906. Berlin (1969) described grabhami as a new species with aureostriata Grabham as its synonym because the latter name was preoccupied at the time by Aedes (Finlaya) aureostriatus (Doleschall, 1857). In 2003, aureostriatus (Doleschall) was transferred from subgenus Finlaya to the newly established subgenus Bruceharrisonius (Reinert, 2003), and subsequently became a species of genus Bruceharrisonius when the subgenus was elevated to generic status by Reinert et al. (2009). The two species now bear the names Howardina aureostriata Grabham, 1906a, with grabhami Berlin, 1969 as its junior synonym, and Bruceharrisonius aureostriatus (Doleschall, 1857).

• (19 Oct) Completion of page for genus Bifidistylus.
  

• (12 Oct) Completion of page for genus Danielsia.
  

• (5 Oct) Changes and additions (completion) of page for genus Downsiomyia.

September 2011:

• (28 Sep) Changes and additions (completion) of page for genus Bruceharrisonius.
  

• (20 Sep) Changes and additions (completion) of page for genus Tewarius. 

August 2011:

• (29 Aug) Authorship of Anopheles cucphuongensis corrected to Vu, Nguyen, Tran & Nguyen. In Vietnam, as in many Asian countries, the family name is placed before the individual's given name(s). The authorship previoiusly listed for this species comprised the given names of the authors.

• (17 Aug) Changes and addition to page (completed) for genus Finlaya.
  

• (16 Aug) Changes and additions to page (completed) for genus Albuginosus.

July 2011:

• (29 Jul) Changes and additions to page (completed) for genus Catatassomyia.

• (27 Jul) Changes and additions to page (completed) for genus Cancraedes.

• (26 Jul) Changes and additions to page (completed) for genus Alanstonea.

• (21 Jul) Removal of eight nomina nuda, listed as new species without description by Dong et al. (2004), from the list of Valid Mosquito Species and the relevant taxon pages. Family Culicidae includes 3,523 formally recognised species.

• (20 Jul) Changes and additions to page for genus Armigeres; addition of pages for subgenera Armigeres and Leicesteria.

June 2011:

• (27 Jun) Changes and additions to page for genus Mucidus; addition of pages for subgenera Mucidus and Pardomyia.

May 2011:

• (24 May) Addition of Anopheles (Nyssorhynchus) guarani Shannon, 1928, elevated from synonymy with Anopheles (Nyssorhynchus) lutzii Cruz, 1901 by Nagaki et al. (2011), bringing the number of Valid Mosquito Species to 3,531.

April 2011:

• (6 Apr) Addition of Anopheles (Cellia) rampae Harbach & Somboon, 2011, bringing the number of Valid Mosquito Species to 3,530.

• (6 Apr) Revision of page for genus Aedeomyia, with addition of pages for subgenera Aedeomyia and Lepiothauma, and transfer of Ad. africana and Ad. pauliani from subgenus the latter to the former subgenus, as explained by Brunhes et al. (2011).

March 2011:

• (7 Mar) Addition of Aedeomyia (Aedeomyia) madagascarica Brunhes, Boussès & da Cunha Ramos, 2011, bringing the number of Valid Mosquito Species to 3,529.

• (7 Mar) Corrected spelling of Culex (Culex) vicinus (previously misspelled as vincinus) in Culex classification and the taxon page for subgenus Culex, and removal of the name vincinus from the list of Valid Mosquito Species (both vicinus and vincinus were previously included). Thanks to Philippe Boussès for pointing this out.

February 2011:

• (11 Feb) Addition of a Bibliography. The bibliography currently only includes references cited in text throughout the site, including references for (1) authorship of taxa for which taxon pages are available and (2) those listed as "Important References" on taxon pages. Additional references, including references for the authorship of taxonomic names, will be added to the bibliography as taxon pages are developed and/or updated.

• (10 Feb) Synonymy of Wyeomyia haynei Dodge, 1947 with Wy. smithii (Coquillett, 1901), reducing the number of Valid Mosquito Species to 3,528. This synonymy, which has been overlooked by cataloguers, is based on the studies of Bradshaw & Lounibos (1977), who stated that "None of the three varieties of Wyeomyia, smithii, haynei, or Gulf coast, appears to be a distinct species. We therefore lump them all into one species, W. smithii, and distinguish three geographical races" (p. 556).

December 2010:

• (31 Dec) Addition of Topomyia (Suaymyia) kelabitensis Miyagi & Toma, 2010, bringing the number of Valid Mosquito Species to 3,529. Note: Miyagi & Toma (2010) originally spelled the species name as “kelabitense”, with the intention of naming the species after the Kelabit people, an indigenous tribe living in the Kelabit Highlands of Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, but the Latin suffix denotes the locality where the people live. As the suffix –ense is neuter and does not agree in gender with the genus name Topomyia, which is feminine, the species name is emended here to kelabitensis (masculine and feminine) in accordance with Articles 32.5.1 and 34.2 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, 1999). As this is a “justified emendation” (Article 33.2.2), the corrected name retains the authorship and date of the original spelling (Article 12.2).

• (9 Dec) Addition of pages for the five subgenera of genus Sabethes.

• (3 Dec) Classifications of genus Anopheles and subgenus Cellia revised to include the overlooked Annularis Complex of Atrie et al. (1999).

November 2010:

• (12 Nov) Corrected dates of publication for several species described by Francis Walker in volumes 1, 3, 4 and 5 of the Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London Zoology, which were published 1857, 1859, 1860 and 1861, respectively. These papers were read at meetings of the Society in the previous years, and the dates of the meetings were given incorrectly as the dates of publication by Stone et al. (1959) and Knight & Stone (1977) for the following species: Anopheles vanus Walker, 1860 [not 1859], Armigeres obturbans (Walker, 1860) [not 1859], Armigeres ventralis (Walker, 1861) [not 1860], Edwardsaedes imprimens (Walker, 1861) [not 1860], Scutomyia impatibilis (Walker, 1860) [not 1859] and Stegomyia scutellaris (Walker, 1859) [not 1858].

• (3 Nov) Authorship of tribe Orthopodomyiini corrected from Belkin & Heinemann, 1970 to Belkin, Heinemann & Page, 1970.

October 2010:

• (29 Oct) Addition of Bothaella manhi Harbach & Cook, 2010, bringing the number of Valid Mosquito Species to 3,528.
• (28 Oct) Addition of "Aedini classification" to the Resources. This resource compares the current phylogenetic and traditional intuitive classifications of the tribe.
• (20 Oct) Addition of Anopheles (Cellia) yaeyamaensis Somboon & Harbach, 2010 (formerly Anopheles minimus species E), bringing the total number of Valid Mosquito Species to 3,527.
• (6 Oct) Coetzeemyia Huang, Mathis & Wilkerson, described as a subgenus of Aedes based on the traditional classification of tribe Aedini, is placed in 'Ochlerotatus' sensu auctorum as its position in the phylogenetic classification of the tribe (Reinert et al, 2009) is uncertain. The only included species, fryeri (Theobald, 1912), is removed from genus Levua Stone & Bohart, along with dufouri (Hamon, 1953), which is returned to genus Ochlerotatus Lynch Arribálzaga without subgeneric placement. These actions leave Levua as a monobasic genus with geoskusea (Amos, 1944) of the Fiji Islands as the only included species.

September 2010:

• (23 Sep) Removal of Orthopodomyia geberti Grjebine, 1954 and Or. madecassorum Rodhain & Boutonnier, 1984 from the list of valid species, reducing the number of Valid Mosquito Species to 3,526. Brunhes & Hervy (1995) synonymised Or. geberti with Or. vernoni van Someren, 1949 and changed the status of Or. madecassorum to nomen dubium. Thanks to Philippe Boussès for pointing this out.
• (15 Sep) Spelling of subgeneric name Empihals corrected (from Emphihals) on the genus Ochlerotatus page.

July 2010:

• (28 Jul) Addition of Anopheles (Cellia) bervoetsi D'Haenans, 1961, elevated to specific status from subspecies of Anopheles (Cellia) moucheti Evans, 1925 by Antonio-Nkondijio et al. (2008), bringing the number of Valid Mosquito Species to 3,528.
• (15 Jul) Anopheles and subgenus Cellia classifications updated to include Anopheles aff. takasagoensis of Takano et al. (2010); taxon page for genus Bothaella completed.

June 2010:

• (30 Jun) Addition of Anopheles (Nyssorhynchus) albertoi Unti, 1941 and An. (Nys.) arthuri Unti, 1941 to the list of valid species, bringing the numb of Valid Mosquito Species to 3,527. The species were raised from synonymy with An. (Nys.) strodei Root, 1926 by Sallum et al. (2010).
• (3 Jun) Addition of an illustrated Anatomical Glossary.
• (1 Jun) Removal of Aedimorphus seychellensis (Theobald, 1912) from the list of Valid Mosquito Species, reducing the number of valid species to 3,525. Edwards (1941) listed this nominal species as a questionable synonym of Polyleptiomyia albocephala (Theobald, 1903) [as Aedes albocephalus]. The fact that this synonymy was later accepted by Mattingly & Brown (1955) seems to have been overlooked or disregarded.
• (1 Jun) Correction: authorship of Anopheles seretsei from Abdulla-Chan, Coetzee & Hunt to Abdulla-Khan, Coetzee & Hunt.

May 2010:

• (19 May) Addition of Anopheles (Nyssorhynchus) pristinus Nagaki & Sallum, 2010, bringing the number of Valid Mosquito Species to 3,526.
• (5 May) Synonymy of Stegomyia lamberti Ventrillon, 1904 with St. aegypti (Linnaeus, 1762), reducing the number of Valid Mosquito Species to 3,525. As recorded by Townson (1990) and Ward (1992), Rodhain & Boutonnier (1985) transferred St. lamberti from synonymy with St. albopicta (Skuse, 1895) (as Aedes albopictus) to synonymy with St. aegypti. The status of St. lamberti as a junior synonym of St. aegypti has not changed since 1985.

April 2010:

• (28 Apr) Addition of Topomyia (Suaymyia) pseudoauriceps Miyagi & Toma, 2010, bringing the number of Valid Mosquito Species to 3,526.
• (28 Apr) Transfer of Toxorhynchites capelai Ribeiro, 1992 from subgenus Toxorhynchites to subgenus Afrorhynchus in accordance with Ribeiro (2005b), and addition of Tx. (Afr.) viridibasis subspecies voltaicus Ribeiro, 2005 to the list of taxa included in the genus. Thanks to Philippe Boussès for noting these errors.
• (7 Apr) Removal of Culex (Melanoconion) mistura Komp & Rozeboom from the list of Valid Mosquito Species (synonymy with Cx. mistura Dyar by Forattini & Sallum, 1993), reducing the total number of valid species to 3,525. Thanks to Philippe Boussès for pointing this out.

March 2010:

• (19 Mar) The following changes were made to the list of Valid Mosquito Species: (1) addition of Culex (Culex) vicinus (Taylor, 19916); (2) removal of Orthopodomyia antanosyorum Rodhain & Boutonnier, which was synonymised with Or. vernoni van Someren by Brunhes & Hervy (1995); (3) spelling of Culex (Eumelanomyia) brenquesi corrected to Cx. brenguesi, ‘Ochlerotatus (Protomacleaya)’ nubilis to ‘Oc.’ nubilus, Anopheles (Cellia) paltrinieri to An. paltrinierii, Uranotaenia (Pseudoficalbia) principenis to Ur. principensis, Uranotaenia (Uranotaenia) solominis to Ur. solomonis and Aedimorphus tauffiebi to Am. tauffliebi. The total number of valid mosquito species stands at 3,526.
• (15 Mar) Addition of Anopheles (Nyssorhynchus) atacamensis González & Sallum, 2010, bringing the total number of Anopheles to 471 and the total number of valid mosquito species to 3,526.
• (11 Mar) Number of species in subfamily Anophelinae corrected as follows: Anopheles (Anopheles) = 182 (not 189 as previously indicated), Anopheles (Nyssorhynchus) = 34 (not 31 as previous indicated). Total number of species in genus Anopheles = 457 (not 464 as previously indicated); in subfamily Anophelinae = 470 (not 477 as previously indicated). 470 (Anophelinae) + 3,055 (Culicinae) = 3,525 valid species.
• (11 Mar) spelling of KERTESZIA corrected on subgenus page (previously misspelled as “KERTSZIA”).
• (1 Mar) Addition of Culex (Lophoceraomyia) singhbhumensis Natarajan & Rajavel, 2009, bringing the total of valid mosquito species to 3,525.

February 2010:

• Coming soon - a comprehensive, interactive anatomical glossary.
• (20 Feb) Non-functional links repaired throughout the site.

January 2010:

• (15 Jan) Spelling of the specific name of Stegomyia w-albus corrected to Stegomyia w-alba, as originally described.

December 2009:

• (2 Dec) Changes and additions where appropriate to record the new genera and subgenera of tribe Aedini proposed by Reinert et al. (2009), bringing the total number of mosquito genera to 113 (80 in tribe Aedini).

November 2009:

• (5 Nov) Addition of Toxorhynchites (Lynchiella) hypoptes (Knab, 1907) and Toxorhynchites (Lynchiella) moctezuma (Dyar & Knab, 1906), elevated from synonymy with Toxorhynchites (Lynchiella) theobaldi (Dyar & Knab, 1906) by Zavortink & Chaverri (2009), bringing the total of valid mosquito species to 3,524.
• (5 Nov) Addition of Wyeomyia (Hystatomyia) baltae Porter, 2009, bringing the total of valid mosquito species to 3,522.

October 2009:

• (16 Oct) Addition of Anopheles (Nyssorhynchus) janconnae Wilkerson & Sallum, 2009 and Anopheles (Nyssorhynchus) oryzalimnetes Wilkerson & Motoki, 2009, bringing the total of valid mosquito species to 3,521.

September 2009:

• (30 Sep) Anopheles Classification updated to include funestus-like species and minor changes to the Leucosphyrus Group.
• (16 Sep) Morphology vocabulary added.
• (14 Sep) Addition of Anopheles (Cellia) pseudosundaicus Tyagi, Hiriyan, Tewari, Ayanar, Samuel, Arunachalam, Paramasivan, Krishnamoorthy, Dhananjeyan, Leo & Rajendran, 2009, bring the total number of valid mosquito species to 3,519.
• (7 Sep) Addition of Ochlerotatus dahlae Nielsen, 2009, bringing the total number of valid mosquito species to 3,518.
• (2 Sep) Removal of loi Lien, 1968, a synonym of fengi Edwards, 1935 (Lu & Ji, 1997), from Genus ‘OCHLEROTATUS’ Lynch Arribálzaga, 1891 sensu auctorum, Subgenus ‘FINLAYA’ Theobald, 1903 sensu auctorum, thus reducing the total number of valid mosquito species to 3,517.

August 2009:

• Addition of Chagasia ablusa Harbach, 2009, bringing the total number of valid mosquito species to 3,518.
• Pages for the 26 subgenera of genus Culex (accessible under Culicidae Classification).
• Complete internal classification of genus Culex (accessible under Resources).
• Updated Valid Mosquito Species to include Culex (Culex) sechani Brunhes & Boussès, 2009.