Culex (Oculeomyia) bitaeniorhynchus 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 : 47

Culex (Oculeomyia) bitaeniorhynchus Giles, 1901a ( Fig. 45 )

Type locality. Travancore, India .

Distribution. This species is found in the Afrotropical, Australasian, Oriental and Palaearctic Regions ( Azari-Hamidian et al. 2019). In the Middle East and North Africa, it occurs in Iran, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen ( Lewis 1956; White 1980; Harbach 1985, 1988; Abdoon 2004; Irish et al. 2016; Tantely et al. 2016, 2017; Azari-Hamadian et al. 2019; Camp et al. 2019; Gunathilaka 2018; Maquart et al. 2021; Wilkerson et al. 2021). It was recorded for the first time in Saudi Arabia by Abdoon (2004).

Remarks. Culex bitaeniorhynchus is the only representative of the subgenus Oculeomyia in the region ( Harbach 1988).

Medical importance. Culex bitaeniorhynchus is a vector of Japanese encephalitis virus ( Bram 1967), and isolations of dengue, Getah, Sindbis and Tembusu viruses have also been reported ( Lee et al. 1989). This species was found to be naturally infected with Wuchereria bancrofti in India and Brugia malayi in Sri Lanka ( Harbach 1988). Also, Batai, Chittoor (an Indian variant of Batai), Murray Valley encephalitis and West Nile viruses ( Smith 1973), as well as Dirofilaria immitis filariae ( Ludham et al. 1970), have been isolated from this species.Additionally, Plasmodium relictum and Sagiyama and Rift Valley fever viruses have been found in the species ( Tantely et al. 2016; Wilkerson et al. 2021).

Figures

FIGURE 45. Culex bitaeniorhynchus, female (Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, photo by David Pecor, Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit).