Anopheles (Cellia) cinereus Theobald, 1901a

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 : 10

Anopheles (Cellia) cinereus Theobald, 1901a ( Fig. 5 )

Type locality. Salisbury , Zimbabwe.

Distribution. This species is found in the Afrotropical and Palararctic Regions ( Wilkerson et al. 2021). In the Middle East and North Africa, it is recorded in Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen ( Knight 1953b; Mattingly & Knight 1956; Kouznetsov 1976; White 1980; Service 1986; Ramsdale 1990; Minář 1991; Glick 1992; van Harten & Wagener 1994; Al-Khalili et al. 2000; Brunhes et al. 2000; Wegner 2009; Al Ahmad et al. 2011; Alahmed 2012; Tantely et al. 2016; Trari et al. 2017; Tabbabi et al. 2017; Irish et al. 2020; Merdić et al. 2020; Wilkerson et al. 2021). It was recorded for the first time in Saudi Arabia by Mattingly & Knight (1956).

Remarks. Anopheles hispaniola Theobald , which was regarded as a subspecies or junior primary synonym of An. cinereus , is now regarded as a species ( Harbach & Wilkerson 2023). Anopheles hispaniola has been reported from the Mediterranean Region, northern Africa and French Equatorial Africa, and An. cinereus from the Afrotropical Region and Arabian Peninsula ( Ramsdale 1998; Becker et al. 2020; Harbach & Wilkerson 2023). Mattingly & Knight (1956) mentioned that An. hispaniola is the Mediterranean ‘analogue’ of An. cinereus . Also, Gillies & de Meillon (1968) mentioned some variation in the pale and dark markings on the wings and hindtarsi of An. cinereus . Until the genetic identities of the two species are resolved, the country occurrence records, especially for An. hispaniola , should be viewed with caution.

Medical importance. In Africa, this species is known to be a vector of at least 16 viruses ( Adam & Digoutte 2005). Although, the species is generally not medically important, sporozoites have been found in females in Morocco ( Trari et al. 2017).

Figures

FIGURE 5. Anopheles cinereus, female (Natural History Museum, London, photo by James Turner, National Museum of Wales).