Culex (Culex) tritaeniorhynchus Giles, 1901a

Dawah, Hassan A., Abdullah, Mohammed A., Ahmad, Syed Kamran, Turner, James & Azari-Hamidian, Shahyad, 2023, An overview of the mosquitoes of Saudi Arabia (Diptera: Culicidae), with updated keys to the adult females, Zootaxa 5394 (1), pp. 1-76 : 42

Culex (Culex) tritaeniorhynchus Giles, 1901a ( Fig. 40 )

Type locality. Travancore, India .

Distribution. This species is found in the Afrotropical, Oriental and Palaearctic Regions ( Azari-Hamidian et al. 2019). In the Middle East and North Africa, it occurs in Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Yemen ( Knight 1953b; Abdel-Malek 1960; White 1980; Harbach 1985, 1988; Harbach et al. 1989; Minář 1991; van Harten & Wagener, 1994; Salit et al. 1994; Amr et al. 1997; Al-Houty 1997; Alten et al. 2000; Brunhes et al. 2000; Miller et al. 2002; Pecor et al. 2002; El Khereji et al. 2007; Rueda et al. 2008; Alahmed et al. 2009; Kheir et al. 2010; Al Ahmad et al. 2011; Alahmed 2012; Al Ahmed et al. 2013; Alsheikh et al. 2013; Mahyoub et al. 2015; Lemine et al. 2017; Kardousha 2015, 2016; Tantely et al. 2016, 2017; Irish et al. 2016; Gunathilaka 2018; Azari-Hamadian et al. 2019; Camp et al. 2019; Farag et al. 2021; Maquart et al. 2021; Simsaa et al. 2021; Wilkerson et al. 2021). It was recorded for the first time in Saudi Arabia by Harbach (1985).

Remarks. Recently, Noureldin et al. (2021) utilized polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to identify Cx. tritaeniorhynchus , for the first time, in the Jazan region and the whole of Saudi Arabia.

Medical importance. Culex tritaeniorhynchus is an important vector of Japanese encephalitis virus ( Self et al. 1973; Maquart et al. 2021) and Rift Valley fever virus in the Jazan region of Saudi Arabia, with biting preference for humans and sheep ( Jupp et al. 2002). It is also considered a potential vector of West Nile virus in Pakistan ( Hayes et al. 1980). Wills et al. (1985) reported that a single isolation of Sindbis virus was obtained from specimens collected at Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia. Yunnan orbivirus was isolated from Cx. tritaeniorhynchus in China ( Attoui et al. 2005). Also, this species is involved in the transmission of Akabane, Babanki, Banzi, Getah, Nigerian, Oya and Sagiyama viruses ( Tantely et al. 2016), and is a known vector of avian plasmodia ( Tantely et al. 2016) and the nematode that causes dirofilariasis ( Ludham et al. 1970).

Figures

FIGURE 40. Culex tritaeniorhynchus, female (photo by James Turner, National Museum of Wales).