Culex (Maillotia) hortensis Ficalbi

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 : 99

Culex (Maillotia) hortensis Ficalbi

subspecies hortensis Ficalbi, 1889 —original combination: Culex hortensis . Distribution: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Crimean Peninsula, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, FYRO Macedonia, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Kosovo, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Malta, Morocco, Poland, Portugal (includes Madeira), Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine ( Wilkerson et al. 2021).

subspecies maderensis Mattingly, 1955—original combination: Culex (Neoculex) hortensis ssp. maderensis . Distribution: Madeira Islands ( Portugal) (Mattingly 1955a; Ribeiro et al. 1988).

Culex hortensis , originally described and named from specimens collected at locations in Tuscany, Italy ( Ficalbi 1889), is widely distributed in western areas of the Palaearctic Region. Mattingly (1955) described and named subspecies maderensis for a population on Madeira Island of Portugal for which the adults have “scarcely any apical banding of the abdominal segments” ( Christophers 1929). Mattingly stated “In my opinion, its color very clearly different from that of all the other forms of C. hortensis that I have been able to examine, as well as the clear presumption that it is characteristic for a determined geographical area, give me the right to re-describe it as a separate subspecies” (translated from the French). Christophers and Mattingly both noted that the genitalia of the two forms are identical. Schaffner et al. (2001) suspected that maderensis also occurs in the Canary Islands, but the presence of hortensis in the Canaries was confirmed by F. M. Edwards, as indicated in a footnote in Christophers (1929): “Specimens from the Canaries have been very kindly examined by Mr. Edwards who very kindly informs me that the hypopygeal [genitalic] characters are, as I suspected, identical.” More recently, Rogozi et al. (2012) identified maderensis in Albania, presumably based on reduced apical pale banding of the abdominal terga; thus, indicating sympatric variation with regard to this anatomical feature. It seems likely that Cx. hortensis was transported to Madeira Island in historical times and has not evolved into a separate species, and is, as suggested by Christophers (1929), nothing more than a “locally less banded variety”. Henceforth, unless molecular data show otherwise, which seems unlikely, the nominal subspecies maderensis must be formally recognized as a synonymous name: maderensis Mattingly, 1955, junior subjective synonym of Culex (Maillotia) hortensis Ficalbi, 1889 . The nominal maderensis, which is listed as a species in the Encyclopedia of Life, must be removed from the list of valid species of Culex .

With the synonymy of maderensis, Cx. hortensis now includes three junior synonyms.The previously recognized synonyms include Maillotia pilifera Theobald, 1907 (type locality: Bornand, Haute Savoie, France) and Cx. lavieri Larrousse, 1925 (type locality: Algeria). These are undoubtedly conspecific with Cx. hortensis .