quinquefasciatus Say

Culex quinquefasciatus Say, 1823: 10 . Gerecke et al. 1995: 133 [aquatic invertebrates]; Whiteman et al. 2005:

844 [records]; Fonseca et al. 2006: 285 [pathways of expansion]; Causton et al. 2006: 125 [introduced species]; Causton & Sevilla 2007: 144 [introduced species]; Sinclair 2009: 112 [introduced species]; Levin et al. 2009 [avian malaria]; Asigau et al. 2017: 247 [altitudinal range].

Culex pipiens quinquefasciatus: Peck 1996: 122 [mode of introduction]; Peck et al. 1998: 228 [introduced species].

Distribution. Introduced. Cosmotropical; Galápagos: Baltra, Floreana, Isabela, San Cristóbal, Santa Cruz (see Eastwood et al. 2019).

Remarks. This is a night-biting, domestic mosquito. Larvae are found in foul water, water containers and rain barrels. Adult females are generally believed to be predominantly bird feeders (Carpenter & LaCasse 1955). This species is a vector of the filarial nematode Wuchereria bancrofti, avian pox Aviposvirus spp. and avian malaria Plasmodium relictum (Carpenter & LaCasse 1955; Whiteman et al. 2005; Levin et al. 2009).

Culex quinquefasciatus is an introduced species, first recorded in 1985 (Causton et al. 2006). This species was ranked by Causton et al. (2006) as “highly invasive” because of the high potential impact on the endemic bird fauna as a vector of avian malaria and West Nile virus (Eastwood et al. 2011, 2019).