Aedes (Pseudarmigeres) michaelikati van Someren

Harbach, Ralph E. & Wilkerson, Richard C., 2023, The insupportable validity of mosquito subspecies (Diptera: Culicidae) and their exclusion from culicid classification, Zootaxa 5303 (1), pp. 1-184 : 47

Aedes (Pseudarmigeres) michaelikati van Someren

subspecies gurneri van Someren, 1946a —original combination: Aedes (Dunnius) michaelikati gurneri . Distribution: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Tanzania ( White 1980; Wilkerson et al. 2021).

subspecies michaelikati van Someren, 1946a —original combination: Aedes (Dunnius) michaelikati . Distribution: Kenya, Tanzania ( White 1980).

These nominal taxa are poorly known. The typical form and subspecies gurneri were described in the same paper ( van Someren 1946a). Available data suggest that the former is restricted to coastal areas (type locality near Mombasa, Kenya) whereas the latter (type locality near Nairobi) has an inland distribution. The two forms are also morphologically distinct—the adults of gurneri are darker than those of michaelikati , there are no white scales on the maxillary palpi of either sex, abdominal terga V and (usually) VI of females lack basal white bands and the shape and armature of the male gonostylus are different. The larvae of the two forms have not been studied in detail, but they may be distinguished by the shape of seta 1-C, which is blunt-tipped in michaelikati and sharply pointed in gurneri . Based on apparent allopatry and morphological distinctions, gurneri is hereby formally recognized as a separate species: Aedes gurneri ( van Someren, 1946a). Aedes gurneri is currently listed as a species in the Encyclopedia of Life.