Anopheles (Cellia) stephensi Liston, 1901

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 : 19-20

Anopheles (Cellia) stephensi Liston, 1901 ( Fig. 15 )

Type locality. Ellichpur, India .

Distribution. This species is found in the Afrotropical, Oriental and Palaearctic Regions ( Azari-Hamidian et al. 2019; Wilkerson et al. 2021). In the Middle East and North Africa, it occurs in Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates ( Mattingly & Knight 1956; Büttiker 1981; Minář 1991; Glick 1992; Salit et al. 1994; Al-Houty 1997; 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 Ahmed et al. 2013; Kardousha 2015, 2016; Azari-Hamidian et al. 2019; Camp et al. 2019; Gunathilaka 2018; Irish et al. 2016, 2020; Alkhayat et al. 2020; Balkew et al. 2020; Farag et al. 2021; Schaffner et al. 2021; Wilkerson et al. 2021). This species was recorded for the first time in Saudi Arabia by Mattingly & Knight (1956).

Remarks. Based on egg-float ridge number, An. stephensi has three biological forms or ecological variants which represent three egg phenotypes, mysorensis Sweet & Rao, typical and intermediate ( Subbarao et al. 1987). There are no differences in the ITS2, COI and COII sequences of the three egg phenotypes ( Chavshin et al. 2014). Gholizadeh et al. (2015) and Firooziyan et al. (2018) used the odorant binding protein 1 (AsteObp1) gene as a molecular marker to distinguish the three phenotypes. They are natural variations ( Azari-Hamidian et al. 2019; Surendran et al. 2022) that are considered to be varinants of An. stephensi .

Medical importance. Anopheles stephensi is known as a major malaria vector in southern Asia, Africa and the Middle East ( Manouchehri et al. 1976; Kyalo et al. 2017; Gholizadeh et al. 2015; Alahmed et al. 2019). It also plays a role in transmitting Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax ( Gillies & Coetzee 1987; Peterson 2009). Females are known to vector Dirofilaria repens ( Anderson 2000) . Also, P. berghei , African horse sickness virus, chikungunya virus, Chandipura virus, Tahyna virus, Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus and an unnamed Cypovirus have been isolated from or assumed to be transmitted by this species ( Wilkerson et al. 2021).

Figures

FIGURE 15. Anopheles stephensi, male (Natural History Museum, London, photo by James Turner, National Museum of Wales).