Culex (Melanoconion) ocossa, Dyar & Knab, 1919: 6

Torres-Gutierrez, Carolina & Sallum, Maria Anice Mureb, 2015, Catalog of the subgenus Melanoconion of Culex (Diptera: Culicidae) for South America, Zootaxa 4028 (1), pp. 1-50 : 24

86. ocossa Dyar & Knab, 1919: 6 (M).

Lectotype M: British Guiana ( Georgetown , Guyana) ( NMNH).

Distribution in South America: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guayana, Peru, Republic of Suriname, Venezuela.

Bibliographic sources: Relevant references in Pecor et al. (1992). This species was included in the Revision of the Spissipes Section by Sallum & Forattini (1996) with notes on bionomics. Sallum et al. (2001) provided full description of immatures (larva, pupa) for this species. Some ecological notes of this species can be found in Forattini et al. (1987b; 1989b; 1991; 1993b,c; 1995).

Geographical records in Sutil (1980); Pecor et al. (2000); Mendez et al. (2001); Salas et al. (2001); Barrera et al. (2002); Barghini et al. (2004); Stein et al. (2004; 2005; 2006; 2013); Jones et al. (2004); Santos et al. (2005); Yanoviak et al. (2005); Turrell et al. (2005); Gomes et al. (2007, 2008); Ferro et al. (2008); Johnson et al. (2008); Hutchings et al. (2008, 2010, 2011); Morrison et al. (2008); Ramos (2009); Sugimoto (2009); D’Avila (2011); Laporta (2012); Del Ventura et al. (2013); Evangelista et al. (2013); Sá & Sallum (2013); Andrews et al. (2014).

Additional comments: All medically important records for Culex ocossa and panocossa cannot be separated as these two species were known before as Culex aikenii , until Belkin´s work in 1970. According to Sirivanakarn & Jakob (1981), “several isolates of Western equine encephalomyelitis virus have been obtained from Cx. ocossa in Argentina (Chaco and Corrientes Provinces)”. Other contributions documented that Cx aikenii was found naturally infected in Panama with a wild strain of Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus, and in laboratory conditions the species was also able to transmit this virus to hamsters ( Galindo & Grayson, 1971, Galindo 1972, Galindo and Adames, 1973).

Other isolations of Western equine encephalitis virus and one strain of Para virus were documented by Mitchell et al. (1985) in Argentina; though the taxonomical treatment was imprecise in this study as the authors use the term “ Cx. (Mel.) ocossa group” as two possible and completely different species (probably one of them Cx. ocossa and the other one Cx. delpontei ). Thus, the latter report should be carefully noticed in regard to species identity. Turrell et al. (1999) tested the susceptibility of Cx. ocossa to infection with an epizootic strain of VEE virus subtype IAB and VEE virus subtype IE, an enzootic strain, in laboratory conditions; showing that females of Cx. ocossa were equally susceptible to both subtypes. The species, Cx. ocossa , was also listed by Turrell et al. (2005) with records of isolation of several viral agents (Venezuelan Equine Encephalomyelitis and Murutucu, among others not yet identified) from specimens from Peru. Recently, Evangelista et al. (2013) characterized a novel flavivirus (Nanay virus) of Peruvian specimens from Culex (Mel.) ocossa individuals. After laboratory analysis the authors stated that the virus did not replicate in mammalian cells.