Culex (Melanoconion) taeniopus, Dyar & Knab, 1907 c: 100

Torres-Gutierrez, Carolina & Sallum, Maria Anice Mureb, 2015, Catalog of the subgenus Melanoconion of Culex (Diptera: Culicidae) for South America, Zootaxa 4028 (1), pp. 1-50 : 32

125. taeniopus Dyar & Knab, 1907c: 100 (F).

Holotype M: Bluefields , Nicaragua ( NMNH).

Distribution in South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, French Guiana, Peru, Venezuela. Type locality: Bluefields, Nicaragua.

Bibliographic sources: Taxonomic and geographical references in Pecor et al. (1992). The species was included in the Revision of the Spissipes Section by Sallum & Forattini (1996) with relevant considerations about its distribution.

According to Forattini et al. (1995), Forattini & Sallum (1995) and Sallum & Forattini (1996), there are many misidentifications in the literature concerning Cx. taeniopus . This species can be confused with Cx. cedecei , Cx. akritos or Cx. ikelos . In the Revision of the Spissipes Section of the subgenus Melanoconion , the authors did not confirm any record from Brazil despite the existence of some references including the species. The updated geographical records of Cx. taeniopus (listed below), include some localities from Brazil, which might fall into the misidentification cases previously documented by Sallum & Forattini (1996), therefore such records need to be reviewed.

Geographical records can be found in Forattini et al. (1970; 1973); Sutil (1980); Gomes et al. (1987); Groot et al. (1996); Quintero et al. (1996); Lopes (2002); Rossi et al. (2002b); Ferro et al. (2008); Suarez - Mutis et al. (2009); Confalonieri & Costa-Neto (2012); Guedes (2012); Parra - Henao & Suárez (2012); Del Ventura et al. (2013). Some ecological notes of the species are included in Forattini et al. (1986a; 1987b;1991; 1993b,c).

Synonyms:

annulipes ( Theobald, 1907: 512) (F; Melanoconion ). Holotype F: Red Hills (Kingston, Surrey), Jamaica (NHM).

ophisthopus Komp, 1926: 44 (M, F). Lectotype M: Puerto Castillo River , Honduras ( NMNH).

mychonde Komp, 1928 (in Dyar 1928: 295) (M). Holotype M (genitalia only): Almirante , (Bocas del Toro), Panama ( NMNH).

Additional comments: The species has been incriminated as vector of Venezuelan equine encephalitis (VEE) virus (subtype IE) in Guatemala and Florida ( Cupp et al. 1989). Shope et al. (1988) listed Cx. taeniopus as a potential vector of several viral agents of Bunyaviridae family (i.e., Ossa, Guama, Ananindeua, Bimiti, Mirim and Guaratuba). Turrell et al. (1999) tested the susceptibility of several Culex species to infection with an epizootic strain of VEE virus -subtype IAB- and VEE virus -subtype IE-, an enzootic strain. Then, such authors showed that Cx. taeniopus was highly susceptible to the IE strain but nearly refractory to infection with an epizootic IAB strain while in laboratory conditions. Deardorff et al. (2011) found a correlation between Cx. taeniopus populations and their spatial distribution with high levels of human and bovine seroprevalence of Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus in Mexico.