Anopheles (Cellia) stephensi Liston, 1901 (Fig. 15)

Type locality. Ellichpur, India .

Distribution. This species is found in the Afrotropical, Oriental and Palaearctic Regions (Azari-Hamidian et al. 2019; Wilkerson et al. 2021). In the Middle East and North Africa, it occurs in Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (Mattingly & Knight 1956; Büttiker 1981; Minář 1991; Glick 1992; Salit et al. 1994; Al-Houty 1997; El Khereji et al. 2007; Rueda et al. 2008; Alahmed et al. 2009; Kheir et al. 2010; Al Ahmad et al. 2011; Alahmed 2012; Al Ahmed et al. 2013; Kardousha 2015, 2016; Azari-Hamidian et al. 2019; Camp et al. 2019; Gunathilaka 2018; Irish et al. 2016, 2020; Alkhayat et al. 2020; Balkew et al. 2020; Farag et al. 2021; Schaffner et al. 2021; Wilkerson et al. 2021). This species was recorded for the first time in Saudi Arabia by Mattingly & Knight (1956).

Remarks. Based on egg-float ridge number, An. stephensi has three biological forms or ecological variants which represent three egg phenotypes, mysorensis Sweet & Rao, typical and intermediate (Subbarao et al. 1987). There are no differences in the ITS2, COI and COII sequences of the three egg phenotypes (Chavshin et al. 2014). Gholizadeh et al. (2015) and Firooziyan et al. (2018) used the odorant binding protein 1 (AsteObp1) gene as a molecular marker to distinguish the three phenotypes. They are natural variations (Azari-Hamidian et al. 2019; Surendran et al. 2022) that are considered to be varinants of An. stephensi .

Medical importance. Anopheles stephensi is known as a major malaria vector in southern Asia, Africa and the Middle East (Manouchehri et al. 1976; Kyalo et al. 2017; Gholizadeh et al. 2015; Alahmed et al. 2019). It also plays a role in transmitting Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax (Gillies & Coetzee 1987; Peterson 2009). Females are known to vector Dirofilaria repens (Anderson 2000) . Also, P. berghei, African horse sickness virus, chikungunya virus, Chandipura virus, Tahyna virus, Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus and an unnamed Cypovirus have been isolated from or assumed to be transmitted by this species (Wilkerson et al. 2021).