An overview of the mosquitoes of Saudi Arabia (Diptera: Culicidae), with updated keys to the adult females Author Dawah, Hassan A. 0000-0001-5642-7247 Centre for Environmental Research and Studies, Jazan University, P. O. Box 2095, Jazan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia dawaha @ hotmail. co. uk; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0001 - 5642 - 7247 dawaha@hotmail.co.uk Author Abdullah, Mohammed A. 0000-0002-3323-3623 Department of Biology, College of Science, King Khalid University, PO Box 9004, Abha- 61413, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia mohd _ robiya @ hotmail. com; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0002 - 3323 - 3623 mohd_robiya@hotmail.com Author Ahmad, Syed Kamran 0000-0002-6211-2345 Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India entosaif @ rediffmail. com; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0002 - 6211 - 2345 entosaif@rediffmail.com Author Turner, James 0000-0003-2411-7396 National Museum of Wales, Department of Natural Sciences, Entomology Section, Cardiff, CF 10 3 NP, UK James. Turner @ museumwales. ac. uk; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0003 - 2411 - 7396 urner@museumwales.ac.uk Author Azari-Hamidian, Shahyad 0000-0002-9370-9638 Research Center of Health and Environment, School of Health, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran; Department of Medical Parasitology, Mycology and Entomology, School of Medicine, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran azari @ gums. ac. ir; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0002 - 9370 - 9638 * Corresponding author: azari @ gums. ac. ir azari@gums.ac.ir text Zootaxa 2023 2023-12-28 5394 1 1 76 https://mapress.com/zt/article/download/zootaxa.5394.1.1/52549 journal article 283939 10.11646/zootaxa.5394.1.1 53fd093a-6ec2-4a98-8afd-bc0029c87b20 1175-5334 10438079 6D86633F-0167-414D-B511-550BCBE578CD Anopheles ( Cellia ) azaniae Bailly-Choumara, 1960 ( Fig. 4 ) Type locality. Somalia . Distribution. This species is found in the Afrotropical Region ( Wilkerson et al. 2021 ). In the Middle East, it has been recorded in Saudi Arabia and Yemen ( White 1980 ; Glick 1992 ; Jupp et al. 2002 ; Kheir et al. 2010 ; Al-Eryani et al. 2016 ; Irish et al . 2020 ; Wilkerson et al. 2021 ). It was recorded for the first time in Saudi Arabia by Jupp et al. (2002) from collections made for the isolation of Rift Valley fever virus during 2000 in Jazan Province . Remarks. Females of An. azaniae are distinguishable from the females of An. dthali by characters of the maxillary palpus, and from those of An. rupicolus by characteristics of the head scales, with which rubbed specimens they may be confused ( Gillies & de Meillon 1968 ). Al-Eryani et al. (2016) recorded an atypical form of An. azaniae in Yemen which displayed different wing markings and a 7% difference in COI sequence. They concluded that the specimen might be a species new to science. Medical importance. Al-Eryani et al. (2016) believed that this species is a possible vector of malarial protozoa in Yemen .