Culex (Melanoconion) vomerifer, Komp, 1932: 79

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 : 34

136. vomerifer Komp, 1932: 79 (M).

Holotype M: Almirante , Bocas del Toro, Panama ( NMNH).

Distribution in South America: Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Peru, Venezuela. Type locality: Almirante, Bocas del Toro, Panama.

Bibliographic sources: Taxonomical and geographical records in Pecor et al. (1992). This species was included in the Revision of the Spissipes Section by Sallum & Forattini (1996), with notes on distribution and bionomics. Ecological notes are found in Forattini et al. (1981).

Additional geographical records in Forattini et al. (1988); Forattini & Sallum (1989); Lane (1992); Souto et al. (1996); Molina et al. (2000); Pecor et al. (2000); Moncayo et al. (2001); Salas et al. (2001); Barrera et al. (2002); Hutchings et al. (2002, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2011); Ferro et al. (2003; 2008); Jones et al. (2004); Navarro & Weaver (2004); Turrell et al. (2005, 2006, 2008); Yanoviak et al. (2005); Suárez-Mutis et al. (2009); Confalonieri & Costa- Neto (2012); Linton et al. (2013); Andrews et al. (2014); Lawrence et al. (2014).

Additional comments: Contributions by Shope et al. (1988) include this species as a potential vector of several viruses of Bunyaviridae family, such as Caraparu, Ossa, Vinces, Madrid, Murutucu, Itaqui, Ananindeua and Moju viruses, in regions of Brazil. In Peru, Turrell et al. (2000) collected mosquitoes in the field and tested them for their susceptibility to Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis (VEE) virus (enzootic and epizootic strains). Their results showed Cx. vomerifer / gnomatos as being highly susceptible to infection with all tested subtypes of VEE virus. Such records should be carefully considered since these authors did not separate the species Cx. vomerifer from Cx. gnomatos with taxonomical confidence. Similarly, in Turrell et al. (2005) some of the medically important records for Culex mosquitoes correspond to an ambiguous identification such as Cx. vomerifer / gnomatos, and some other records were properly assigned to the species independently ( Cx. vomerifer and Cx. gnomatos ). These authors documented isolations from Caraparu, Itaqui, unidentified Group C and unidentified Guama Group viruses from individuals of Cx. vomerifer . Moreover, records by Turrell et al. (2006) showed isolations of Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (subtype IIIC) out of a pool of mixed individuals of Cx. vomerifer /gnomatos. In Colombia, Ferro et al. (2003) studied an active focus of Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV), recording Cx. vomerifer as one of the principal enzootic vectors of subtype ID of VEEV. In Trinidad, Auguste et al. (2010) isolated Caraparu virus from wild specimens of Cx. vomerifer . Also, see additional comments for Culex gnomatos .