Mansonia uniformis, (Theobald) (Theobald, 1901)

Azari-Hamidian, Shahyad, Abai, Mohammad-Reza & Norouzi, Behzad, 2020, Mansonia uniformis (Diptera: Culicidae), a genus and species new to southwestern Asia, with a review of its medical and veterinary importance, Zootaxa 4772 (2), pp. 385-395 : 385

During

study of the museum specimens, some female mosquitoes collected in Ghasreghand (Qasr-e Qand) County of Sistan and Baluchistan Province, southeastern Iran ( Figure 1 ), were quickly identified as members of a genus and species that was not previously known to occur in Iran. The genus was identified as Mansonia Blanchard and the species as Ma. uniformis (Theobald) using the keys of Wharton (1962), Mattingly (1971), Lee et al. (1988), Service (1993), Huang (2002) and Becker et al. (2010). The mosquitoes were collected by Mohammad-Reza Abai in Boghan Village (N 26.2458, E 60.7492) on 12 Jun 1999 (11 females, four on human bait and seven on animal bait), 25 Jun 1999 (four females on animal bait), Choutabad Village (N 26.2324, E 60.7248) on 10 Jul 1999 (one female on animal bait) and Helonchekan Village (N 26.2556, E 60.7556) on 8 Jun 1999 (three females on human bait), 21 Jun 1999 (one female on animal bait), 22 Jun 1999 (one female on animal bait) and 9 Jul 1999 (one female on animal bait). The villages have an elevation of about 500 m above sea level ( Figure 2 ). The specimens were collected with a manual aspirator during night landing catches on cattle and human bait. In total, the density of mosquitoes was 22.1–34.1 per cow per night and 33.9–35.2 per human per night. Other mosquitoes collected with Ma. uniformis were Culex bitaeniorhynchus Giles , Cx. quinquefasciatus Say and Cx. tritaeniorhynchus Giles. The specimens are deposited in the Museum of Medical and Veterinary Entomology , School of Health , Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran .

In addition to Ma. uniformis being a new genus and species for Iran, it is also a new addition to the mosquito fauna of southwestern Asia [for the definition of southwestern Asia see Harbach (1988)]. This record makes a connection between the distributional records of Ma. uniformis in the Afrotropical Region and the Oriental, Australasian and eastern Palaearctic Regions through southern Iran. Also, this finding attests the interesting zoogeography of southern Iran, which includes species from the Oriental Region, such as An. peditaeniatus , An. subpictus Grassi s.l. and Cx. pseudovishnui Colless , and species from the Afrotropical Region, such as Ae. caballus (Theobald) [ Ochlerotatus caballus (Theobald) ] and Cx. antennatus (Becker) ( Azari-Hamidian et al. 2019) .

Figures

FIGURE 1. Map of Iran highlighting the location of Sistan and Baluchistan Province, including Ghasreghand (Qasr-e Qand) County (highlighted) where the specimens of Mansonia uniformis were collected.

FIGURE 2. The villages in Ghasreghand (Qasr-e Qand) County of Sistan and Baluchistan Province where Mansonia uniformis was collected. (a, b) Boghan (rice and date fields), (c) Choutabad (outdoor shelter) and (d) Helonchekan (animal shelter).