Culex (Oculeomyia) aurantapex Edwards

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 : 106

Culex (Oculeomyia) aurantapex Edwards

subspecies aurantapex Edwards, 1914 —original combination: Culex aurantapex . Distribution: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia ( Wilkerson et al. 2021), also Zimbabwe ( Jupp 1996).

subspecies ellinorae Ovazza, Hamon & Neri, 1956 —original combination: Culex (Culex) aurantapex var. ellinorae (although originally designated a variety, ellinorae is a replacement name for a recognized subspecies ( abyssinicus van Someren, 1945 ) and has been recognized as a subspecies of aurantapex since Stone et al. 1959). Distribution: Ethiopia ( Ovazza et al. 1956).

subspecies jinjaensis Edwards, 1941 —original combination: Culex (Culex) aurantapex var. jinjaensis (subspecific status by Harbach & Howard 2007). Distribution: Uganda, Zambia ( Wilkerson et al. 2021).

Culex aurantapex was described from a single female collected in Nairobi, Kenya ( Edwards 1914), a black species with distinctive abdominal scaling—“segments 2–4 black-scaled (dorsally), with a few scattered orange scales; segments 5–8 almost entirely orange-scaled both above and below [terga and sterna].” Edwards (1941) described jinjaensis (as a variety) from a series of seven males and seven females from Jinja, Uganda and a male from Kampala (Mattingly 1956), characterized as being blacker than the type form with “the abdomen lacking the conspicuous orange tip; tergites 5–8 [terga V–VIII] in both sexes with apical lateral yellow patches, which tend to unite to form rather irregular lateral yellow stripes on distal half of abdomen.” Jinja is located on the shore of Lake Victoria in southern Uganda. Edwards stated that the male genitalia of jinjaensis differ “little if at all from those of the typical form”, the genitalia of which Edwards described from specimens collected in Nairobi.

Subspecies ellinorae , described by van Someren (1945), under the preoccupied name of abyssinicus , from females collected at Sciasciamanna and Lake Awasa in present-day Ethiopia that differ “from the type form by having more extensive orange markings on the abdominal tergites [terga]”—“2 with narrow black lateral borders and 2 large triangular orange spots the bases of which usually meet on the apical border of the segment to form a narrow orange band; 3 sometimes like 2 and sometimes the same as 4 which is mainly orange with narrow black lateral borders and 2 small median black triangles; 5 orange with narrow black lateral borders; 6–8 all orange. The black markings have a few scattered orange scales. Sternites 6–8 [sterna VI–VIII] all orange; 5 black with a few scattered orange scales and a narrow orange apical band; remainder black with scattered orange scales.”

Culex aurantapex is very poorly known morphologically and taxonomically. The larva of the type form and that of subspecies jinjaensis are both only known from a single exuviae from their type localities ( Hopkins 1952). Hopkins did not describe or illustrate these larvae because he was unable to find any differences between the exuviae and the larva of Cx. annulioris (see above). The pupa was described by Ingram & de Meillon (1927), which was apparently (not explicitly stated) identified from adults reared from larvae collected from a large swamp east of forest at Empangeni KwaZulu-Natal (as Zululand), South Africa. Edwards (1941) acknowledged the description but pointed out that “confirmation of the identity of this is desirable, but the paedotype pelt [exuviae] from Nairobi is similar in most respects.” Obviously, the immature stages of the nominal forms are essentially unknown.

It is unfortunate that the male genitalia of the nominal forms have not been fully described and illustrated, and the immature stages have not been unequivocally associated with the type form. Because the variation observed in adults is suggestive of a species complex, with respect for the intuitive interpretation of morphological observations of the authors of the nominal forms, we are compelled to regard them as separate species pending morphological and molecular confirmation: Culex (Oculeomyia) ellinorae Ovazza, Hamon & Neri, 1956 and Culex (Oculeomyia) jinjaensis Edwards, 1941 . Culex ellinorae and Cx. jinjaensis are both currently listed as species in the Encyclopedia of Life.