Culex (Culex) laticinctus Edwards, 1913

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 : 32

Culex (Culex) laticinctus Edwards, 1913 ( Fig. 30 )

Type locality. Tiberias , Palestine.

Distribution. This species is found in the Afrotropical and Palaearctic Regions ( Azari-Hamidian et al. 2019). In the Middle East and North Africa, it has been recorded in Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar (see Remarks), Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Yemen ( Edwards 1914; Knight 1953b; Lewis 1956; Mattingly & Knight 1956; Abdel-Malek 1960; White 1980; Harbach 1985, 1988; Harbach et al. 1989; Minář 1991, van Harten & Wagener 1994; Al-Khalili et al. 2000; Alten et al. 2000; Brunhes et al. 2000; Knio et al. 2005; El Khereji et al. 2007; Al-Ali et al. 2008; Alahmed et al. 2009; Kheir et al. 2010; Al Ahmad et al. 2011; Alahmed 2012; Kardousha 2015; Tabbabi et al. 2017; Aqeehal et al. 2019; Azari-Hamidian et al. 2019; Camp et al. 2019; Merdić et al. 2020; Simsaa et al. 2021; Wilkerson et al. 2021; Khalefa et al. 2022). It was recorded for the first time in Saudi Arabia by Mattingly & Knight (1956).

Remarks. Females of Cx. laticinctus and Cx. mattinglyi Knight are very similar ( Harbach 1988, see the key below). The records of Cx. mattinglyi in Qatar ( Alkhayat et al. 2020), Syria ( Abdel-Malek 1960) and Turkey ( Minář 1991) probably are based on misidentified specimens of Cx. laticinctus .

Medical importance. Females of Cx. laticinctus do not represent a risk for vectorial transmission to humans as they do not bite humans ( Schaffner et al. 2010, 2021).

Figures

FIGURE 30. Culex laticinctus, female (Natural History Museum, London, photo by James Turner, National Museum of Wales).