Anopheles (Anopheles) bancroftii Giles

Harbach, Ralph E. & Wilkerson, Richard C., 2023, The insupportable validity of mosquito subspecies (Diptera: Culicidae) and their exclusion from culicid classification, Zootaxa 5303 (1), pp. 1-184 : 55

Anopheles (Anopheles) bancroftii Giles

subspecies bancroftii Giles, 1902 —original combination: Anopheles bancroftii . Distribution: Australia, Papua New Guinea, including the Admiralty Islands in the Bismarck Archipelago (Lee et al. 1987).

subspecies barbiventris Brug, 1938 —original combination: Anopheles bancrofti [sic] var. barbiventris (subspecific status by Harbach & Howard 2007). Distribution: Indonesia, Sulawesi (Lee et al. 1987).

Giles (1902) described Anopheles bancroftii , a widely distributed species in Australia (Lee et al. 1987), based on specimens from Burpengary, Queensland. Misidentification of An. pseudobarbirostris Ludlow, 1902 as An. bancroftii has resulted in erroneous listings of bancroftii in the Philippines, Sulawesi (Celebes) and Sri Lanka (Lee et al. 1987).

Subspecies barbiventris was described from specimens collected in Kalawara, Palou, Gumbasa, Sigi Regency , Central Sulawesi, Indonesia (Gazetteer: GoeNames; Kalawara; populated place; coordinates: -1.1808, 119.9385; D. Pecor pers. comm.). In the description, it was compared to An. bancrofti [sic] var. pseudobarbirostris (now a separate species), An. tessellatus Theobald, 1901a and An. vagus D̂nitz, 1902. Foote & Cook (1959) listed barbiventris as being from “Australasia”, which includes many countries, but it’s only known occurrence is in Sulawesi (Celebes). Harbach & Howard (2007) recognized barbiventris as a subspecies of An. bancroftii per Article 45.6.4 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature and suggested that it was probably a distinct species. Reid (1962), commenting on the bancroftii group, noted discrepancies in existing descriptions: “ A. bancroftii var. barbiventris from Celebes seems to merit specific rank; in addition to the striking tufts of black and white scales on the abdominal sternites [sterna], the large leaflets on the phallosome [aedeagus] appear to be longer than those of bancroftii and pseudobarbirostris and have fine teeth [serration]; doubtless there are other differences.” Herein, in addition to evidence of allopatry, we agree with Reid (1962) and Harbach & Howard (2007) that barbiventris should be afforded species status: Anopheles (Anopheles) barbiventris Brug, 1938 . Anopheles barbiventris is currently listed as a species in the Encyclopedia of Life.

Note. A species complex is suggested by a molecular and morphological study ( Beebe et al. 2002; Beebe et al. 2013) demonstrating the probability of four bancroftii -related sibling species in northern Australia and Papua New Guinea.