Culex (Melanoconion) portesi, Senevet & Abonnenc, 1941: 41

Torres-Gutierrez, Carolina & Sallum, Maria Anice Mureb, 2015, Catalog of the subgenus Melanoconion of Culex (Diptera: Culicidae) for South America, Zootaxa 4028 (1), pp. 1-50 : 28

104. portesi Senevet & Abonnenc, 1941: 41 (M).

Holotype M: French Guiana (NE).

Distribution in South America: Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Republic of Suriname, Peru, Venezuela.

Bibliographic sources: Known life stages and relevant references in Pecor et al. (1992). This species was included in the Revision of the Spissipes Section by Sallum & Forattini (1996) with notes on bionomics. Additional geographical records in Forattini et al. (1970; 1973); Sutil (1980); Lane (1992); Souto et al. (1996); Pecor et al. (2000); Jones et al. (2004); Navarro & Weaver (2004); Hutchings et al. (2005, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013); Yanoviak et al. (2005); Turrell et al. (2005, 2006, 2008); Ferro et al. (2008); Johnson et al. (2008); Confalonieri & Costa - Neto (2012); Del Ventura et al. (2013); Andrews et al. (2014); Lawrence et al. (2014).

Synonym:

cayennensis Floch & Abonnenc, 1945b:4 (M). Holotype M: Cayenne , (Guyane), French Guiana (NE).

Additional comments: The paper by Sirivanakarn & Dégallier (1981) contains a list of the several virus isolations documented for Culex portesi in countries like Trinidad, Brazil, Surinam and French Guiana (i.e., Bimiti, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, Mucambo, Cabassou, Caraparu, Itaqui, Tonate, Marituba and Maguari viruses, among others). Similarly, Shope et al. (1988) included this species as potential vector of Group C viruses ( Bunyaviridae ) in Brazil. Ferro et al. (2003) documented the finding of Aitken (1972), in which the role of Cx. portesi as a vector of Mucambo virus (Venezuelan equine encephalitis complex, subtype IIIA) is discussed in Trinidad. Also, Turrell et al. (2005) isolated a not identified viral agent from mosquitoes of this species in the Amazon Basin region of Peru. Auguste et al. (2010) found association between Cx. portesi and a number of isolates of Caraparu and Oriboca viruses (Group C, Orthobunyavirus ) in Trinidad.