Culex pseudojanthinosoma Senevet & Abonnenc, 1946: 139

Talaga, Stanislas, Gantier, Jean-Charles & Girod, Romain, 2020, Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) originally described from French Guiana, Zootaxa 4747 (2), pp. 361-377 : 368

34. Culex pseudojanthinosoma Senevet & Abonnenc, 1946: 139 (F, L) [synonymized here with Cx. duttoni Theobald, 1901 ].

Holotype F (with associated larval and pupal exuviae): [ Africa ] ( MNHP *); coll. not indicated; date not provided; no. M.1553.

Culex pseudojanthinosoma was synonymized with Cx. corniger by Lane (1951: 334) and resurrected from synonymy by Senevet & Abonnenc (1958: 345). The holotype and one of the two paratypes (no. M.1555), originally deposited in the IPA, were transferred to the FMP ( Belkin 1968: 19) and later found in the MNHP by Dégallier & Claustre (1980: 144).

Examination of the holotype revealed that this species cannot be separated from the most recent description of the female, pupa and larva of Cx. duttoni Theobald , which is unusual considering that this species is restricted to the Afrotropical Region ( Harbach 1988: 82). In the original description of Cx. pseudojanthinosoma, Senevet & Abonnenc (1946: 138) stated that the type material was in the IPA among a series of Psorophora (Janthinosoma) from French Guiana. We believe that the type material of Cx. pseudojanthinosoma came from Africa and was misplaced among Psorophora from French Guiana and wrongly listed as being from that territory. The doubtful origin of the type material is corroborated by the lack of information about the type collection, which is unusual for the authors as they always provided many details on type locality and date of collection (this study). Consequently, Cx. pseudojanthinosoma Senevet & Abonnenc is recognized here as a junior synonym of Cx. duttoni Theobald (see above). The type locality of Cx. pseudojanthinosoma is here changed from French Guiana to Africa and the collection data other than the original specimen numbers are considered to be erroneous.