Anopheles (Anopheles) tenebrosus Döenitz, 1902

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 : 7

Anopheles (Anopheles) tenebrosus Döenitz, 1902 ( Fig. 2 )

Type locality. Wadi el Natrun, Egypt.

Distribution: This species occurs in the Afrotropical and Palaearctic Regions ( Wilkerson et al. 2021). In the Middle East and North Africa, it is found in Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Libya, Oman, Palestine and Saudi Arabia ( Mattingly & Knight 1956; Minář 1991; White 1980; Wills et al. 1985; Harbach et al. 1989; Ramsdale 1990; Glick 1992; Morsy et al. 1995; Brunhes et al. 2000; Al Ahmad et al. 2011; Alahmed 2012; Tantely et al. 2016; Irish et al. 2020; Wilkerson et al. 2021). The species was recorded for the first time in Saudi Arabia (as An. coustani var. tenebrosus ) by Mattingly & Knight (1956).

Remarks. Gillies & de Meillon (1968) described a dark-legged form of this species. As Glick (1992) mentioned, the postmedian dark scales on abdominal sternum VII are present in An. coustani and are occasionally absent in some specimens of An. tenebrosus , however the character is not reliable enough to distinguish the two species.

Medical importance. This species is involved in the transmission of human malarial parasites in areas of Africa ( Gillies & de Meillon 1968; Adugna et al. 1998; Tantely et al. 2016).

Figures

FIGURE 2. Anopheles tenebrosus, female (Natural History Museum, London, photo by James Turner, National Museum of Wales).