Anopheles (Cellia) dthali Patton, 1905

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 : 12

Anopheles (Cellia) dthali Patton, 1905 ( Fig. 7 )

Type locality. D’thala, Hardeba , Sulek and Nobat, Aden Hinterland, Yemen.

Distribution. This species is found in the Afrotropical, Oriental and Palaearctic Regions ( Azari-Hamidian et al. 2019). In the Middle East and North Africa, it occurs in Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen ( Knight 1953b; Mattingly & Knight 1956; Kouznetsov 1976; White 1980; Service 1986; Harbach et al. 1989; Minář 1991; Glick 1992; van Harten & Wagener 1994; Al-Khalili et al. 2000; Brunhes et al. 2000; Miller et al. 2002; Abdoon & Alshahrani 2003; 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 Ashry et al. 2014; Mahyoub et al. 2015; Al-Eryani et al. 2016; Lemine et al. 2017; Tabbabi et al. 2017; Trari et al. 2017; Azari-Hamidian et al. 2019; Irish et al. 2020; Wilkerson et al. 2021). It was recorded for the first time in Saudi Arabia by Mattingly & Knight (1956).

Reamarks. Females of An. dthali are distinguishable from females of An. azaniae by characters of the maxillary palpus, with which rubbed specimens they may be confused ( Gillies & de Meillon 1968).

Medical importance. Anopheles dthali has been recorded as transmitting malaria in Yemen, but malaria transmission by this species is not confirmed in Saudi Arabia ( Kouznetsov 1976; Munawar et al. 2020). The species is a proven vector of malaria in Iran ( Azari-Hamidian et al. 2019) and various parts of its distribution ( Zahar 1990).

Figures

FIGURE 7. Anopheles dthali, female (Natural History Museum, London, photo by James Turner, National Museum of Wales).