Anopheles (Cellia) rupicolus Lewis, 1937 (Fig. 13)

Type locality. Jebel Moya, near Sennar, Blue Nile, Sudan.

Distribution. This species is found in the Afrotropical and Palaearctic Regions (Harbach & Wilkerson 2023). In the Middle East and North Africa, it occurs in Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen (Knight 1953b; Kouznetsov 1976; White 1980; Zahar 1985; Harbach et al. 1989; Minář 1991; Glick 1992; Brunhes et al. 2000; Abdoon & Alshahrani 2003; Alahmed et al. 2009; Kheir et al. 2010; Alahmed 2012; Lemine et al. 2017; Irish et al. 2020; Wilkerson et al. 2021). Anopheles rupicolus was recorded for the first time in Saudi Arabia by Zahar (1985) (as An. rhodesiensis rupicolus).

Remarks. Anopheles rupicolus was previously known as a subspecies of An. rhodesiensis Theobald (Type locality: Salisbury, Zimbabwe) (Harbach & Wilkerson 2023). Gillies & de Meillon (1968), Gillies & Coetzee (1987) and Harbach & Wilkerson (2023) should be consulted for characters that distinguish the two species. Anopheles rhodesiensis occurs mostly in the Afrotropical Region (Harbach & Wilkerson 2023). Anopheles rupicolus is also recorded in some countries in southwestern Asia and North Africa (Glick 1992). The name rupicolus is spelled as Lewis (1937) intended to it be spelled. It was correctly spelled in A Synoptic Catalog of the Mosquitoes of the World (Stone et al. 1959); however, the spelling was changed to rupicola in the second edition of the catalog (Knight & Stone 1977) and that spelling was subsequently used by many authors, including Glick (1992). As Gillies & Coetzee (1987) explained, the correct spelling is rupicolus . Females of An. rupicolus are distinguishable from females of An. azaniae using characters of the head scales; thus, rubbed specimens may be confused with that species (Gillies & de Meillon 1968).

Medical importance. Anopheles rupicolus is not known to be a vector species (Zahar 1985).