Identification of Culex mosquitoes and preparation of keys

Adult mosquitoes were identified to species using the keys of Edwards (1941) and Harbach (1988). Specimens were examined under a dissecting microscope with a magnification of 25x. The dichotomous key below was pre- pared to identify the species of Culex known to occur in central and northern Sudan and other areas of the country. The key includes the species collected during the study and those recorded by Edwards (1941) and Lewis (1956) from localities in the study area. The morphological terminology of Harbach & Knight (1980, 1982), revised and updated in the Anatomical Glossary of the Mosquito Taxonomic Inventory (http://mosquito-taxonomic-inventory. info/), is used in the keys. The generally accepted two-letter abbreviations for the genera Culex and Lutzia, i.e. Cx. and Lt., and the three-letter abbreviations recommended by Reinert (2009) are used for the subgenera of Culex, including: Cui. = Culiciomyia Theobald, 1907; Cux. = subgenus Culex; Eum. = Eumelanomyia Theobald, 1909; Ocu. = Oculeomyia Theobald, 1907 .