Culicidae Meigen, 1818

Ivan Országh¹, Jan Minář² & Jozef Halgoš³

¹Comenius University, Department of Zoology, Mlynská dolina, 842 15 Bratislava, Slovakia; orszaghova@fns.uniba.sk

²Jaselská 3, 160 00 Praha 6, Czech Republic

³Comenius University, Department of Ecology, Mlynská dolina, 842 15 Bratislava, Slovakia; halgos@fns.uniba.sk

Mosquitoes are one of the best-studied families of Diptera. The perennial plea for more detailed analyses refers to their role in transmitting various disease pathogens (viruses, malaria, filarioses, etc.). Females of many species are haematophagous, and they suck the blood of vertebrates.

Body slender, usually 3.0-9.0 mm long, rarely longer. Compound eyes large, occupying most of head laterally, ocelli absent. Antenna 15-segmented, bushy in males and with long setae on flagellomeres. Female mouthparts consisting of a piercing proboscis, longer than height of head; proboscis of males shorter, mandibular and maxillary stylets variously reduced. Scutum forming the largest part of mesonotum. Scutellum trilobed (Culicinae excluding Toxorhynchitini) or rounded (Anophelinae, Toxorhynchitini). Wings narrow, long, with scales on hind-margin and veins; membrane covered with microtrichia. Costal vein developed around the whole wing, subcosta long, radius diverging into 4 branches marginally, R1, R2, R3, R4+5. Media ramified into M1 and M2. Cross-veins r-m and m-m visible. Legs slender, praetarsus with claws and short empodium between them. Abdomen long, cylindrical, 10 segmented with spiracles on 2nd and 7th segments. Male terminalia rotate 180° shortly after hatching (hypopygium inversum); most of terminalia occupied by gonopods. In females 1 (Anophelinae) or 3 (Culicinae) spermathecae in 7th-8th abdominal segments. Females lay eggs on the water surface (Anopheles, Culex, Culiseta, Coquillettidia, Uranotaenia) or on soil in depressions subject to filling by rains, melting snow, or floodwater (Aedes and Ochlerotatus). There are 4 larval instars which are all aquatic. Larvae as well as pupae are agile.

Approximately 3540 species are known worldwide (Walter Reed Biosystematic Unit 2001). More than 100 occur in Europe (Snow & Ramsdale 2003, 2005), of which 41 have been recorded in the Czech Republic (Bohemia, Moravia) and 49 in Slovakia.

The identification of mosquitoes in the area of the Czech Republic and Slovakia is based on the important monograph by Kramář (1958). However, useful information can be found in the keys contained in other papers (Dahl 1997, Mihályi & Sztankay-Gulyás 1963, Mohrig 1969, Mončadskij 1951). The most recent survey of the mosquitoes of the area of the Czech Republic and Slovakia was published in 1997 (Minář & Halgoš 1997). A catalogue of the Slovak species was published by Országh (2004). Distribution maps for the species in Slovakia are available in a paper from Országh et al. (2001).

Recently more significant changes have been made to the hierarchy of the lower level taxa in the tribe Aedini (Reinert 2000, Reinert et al. 2004, 2006). For the first time, the checklist includes Anopheles hyrcanus, recorded in SW Slovakia (Halgoš & Benková 2004), and Ochlerotatus detritus, collected in E Slovakia as early as 1961 (Trpiš 1965). Information on the occurrence of Uranotaenia unguiculata in Slovakia in the previous checklist (Minář & Halgoš 1997) refers to the first record of the species which was not published until one year later (Bitušík & Hrabinová 1998). Mosquito nomenclature follows the Fauna Europaea (Snow & Ramsdale 2005) as well as the revised checklist of European mosquitoes (Snow & Ramsdale 2003) and Reinert et al. (2006).

References

[1] Bitušík P. & Hrabinová S. 1998: Uranotaenia unguiculata (Diptera, Culicidae) – first record from Slovakia. Biologia, Bratislava 53: 644.

[2] Dahl C. 1997: Diptera Culicidae, Mosquitoes, pp. 163-186. In Nilsson A. (ed.): Aquatic Insects of North Europe. A Taxonomic Handbook. Vol. 2. Apollo Books, Stenstrup.

[3] Halgoš J. & Benková I. 2004: First record of Anopheles hyrcanus (Diptera: Culicidae) from Slovakia. Biologia, Bratislava 59/Suppl. 15: 68.

[4] Jalili N., Országh I., Halgoš J. & Labuda M. 2000: Mosquitoes (Diptera, Culicidae) of Slovakia. European Mosquito Bulletin 6: 20-26.

[5] Kramář J. 1958: Komáři bodaví – Culicinae. Fauna ČSR 13. Nakladatelství Československé akademie věd, Praha, 287 pp.

[6] Mihályi F. & Sztankay-Gulyás M. 1963: Magyarország csípő szúnyogjai. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 231 pp.

[7] Minář J. & Halgoš, J. 1997: Culicidae. In Chvála M. (ed.): Check List of Diptera (Insecta) of the Czech and Slovak Republics. Karolinum, Charles University Press, Prague, p. 34.

[8] Mohrig W. 1969: Die Culiciden Deutschlands. Parasitologische Schriftenreihe 18. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Jena. 260 pp.

[9] Mončadskij A.S. 1951: Ličinky krovososuščich komarov SSSR i sopredeľnych stran  (podsem. Culicinae). Izdateľstvo AN  SSSR,  Moskva, Leningrad. 291 pp.

[10] Országh I. 2002: Culex martinii Medschid (Diptera, Culicidae) in Slovakia. Acta Zoologica Universitatis Comenianae 44: 75-78.

[11] Országh I. 2004: Catalogue of mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) of Slovakia. Biologia, Bratislava 59/Suppl. 15: 69-156.

[12] Országh I., Halgoš J., Jalili N. & Labuda M. 2001: Mosquitoes (Diptera, Culicidae) of Slovakia II. European Mosquito Bulletin 11: 1-26.

[13] Reinert J.F. 2000: New classification for the composite genus Aedes (Diptera: Culicidae: Aedini), elevation of subgenus Ochlerotatus to generic rank, reclassification of the other subgenera, and notes on certain subgenera and species. Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association 16: 175-188.

[14] Reinert J.F., Harbach R.E. & Kitching I.J. 2004: Phylogeny and classification of Aedini (Diptera: Culicidae), based on morphological characters of all life stages. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 142: 289-368.

[15] Reinert J.F., Harbach R.E. & Kitching I.J. 2006: Phylogeny and classification of Finlaya and allied taxa (Diptera: Culicidae: Aedini) based on morphological data from all life stages. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 148: 1-101.

[16] Snow K.R. & Ramsdale C.D. 2003: A revised checklist of European mosquitoes. European Mosquito Bulletin 15: 1-5.

[17] Snow K.R. & Ramsdale C.D. 2005: Fauna Europaea: Culicidae. In Jong H. de (ed.): Fauna Europaea: Diptera, Nematocera. Fauna Europaea version 1.2, www.faunaeur.org.

[18] Trpiš M. 1956: Poznatky z boja proti komárom na juhozápadnom Slovensku. Biologické práce, Bratislava 2(6): 27-46 + 2 maps.

[19] Trpiš M. 1965: Verbreitung der Stechmücken (Diptera, Culicidae) in der Ostslowakei. Entomologické problémy 5: 71-100.

[20] Vaňhara J. 1985: Influence of the waterworks constructed near Nové Mlýny (Southern Moravia) on the mosquito community (Culicidae, Diptera). Ekológia (ČSSR) 4: 251-265.

[21] Vaňhara J. 1987: Faunistic records from CZechoslovakia. Diptera, Culicidae, Aedes (Ochlerotatus) nigrinus (Eckstein, 1918). Acta Entomologica Bohemoslovaca 84: 68.

[22] Walter Reed Biosystematic Unit. 2001: Systematic Catalog of Culicidae. www.mosquitocatalog.org/main.asp.