Culex (Melanoconion) pedroi, Sirivanakarn & Belkin, 1980: 12

Torres-Gutierrez, Carolina & Sallum, Maria Anice Mureb, 2015, Catalog of the subgenus Melanoconion of Culex (Diptera: Culicidae) for South America, Zootaxa 4028 (1), pp. 1-50 : 26

95. pedroi Sirivanakarn & Belkin, 1980: 12 (M, F, L, P).

Holotype M: Juan Mina (0.5 km S of Rio Chagres), Canal Zone, Panama ( NMNH).

Distribution in South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Republic of Suriname, Venezuela. Type locality: Juan Mina (0.5 km S of Rio Chagres), Canal Zone, Panama.

Bibliographic sources: Important references in Pecor et al. (1992). This species was included in the Revision of the Spissipes Section by Sallum & Forattini (1996), with notes on bionomics and distribution. Some ecological notes can be found in Forattini et al. (1981; 1986a, b; 1987a,b; 1989a,b; 1991; 1993b,c; 1995).

Additional geographical records in Dickerman et al. (1986); Gomes et al. (1987); Luz & Lourenço de Oliveira (1996); Souto et al. (1996); Pecor et al. (2000); Turrell et al. (2000; 2005, 2006, 2008); Mendez et al. (2001); Moncayo et al. (2001); Salas et al. (2001); Barrera et al. (2002); Hutchings et al. (2002, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013); Rossi et al. (2002b); Ferro et al. (2003, 2008); Jones et al. (2004); O’Guinn et al. (2004); Navarro & Weaver (2004); Alfonzo et al. (2005); Yanoviak et al. (2005); Kondig et al. (2007); Barreto et al. (2008); Johnson et al. (2008); Barbosa et al. (2008); Santos-Neto & Lozovei (2008); Tissot & Silva (2008); Nunes et al. (2009); Suarez-Mutis et al. (2009); Guedes (2010); Confalonieri & Costa-Neto (2012); Dantur-Juri et al. (2012); Laporta (2012); Parra-Henao & Suárez (2012); Ribeiro et al. (2012); Del Ventura et al. (2013); Sá & Sallum (2013); Sant’Ana (2013); Andrews et al. (2014); Chaves et al. (2014); Guedes & Navarro-Silva (2014); Lawrence et al. (2014).

Additional comments: Sallum & Forattini (1996) documented important bibliographic references indicating this species as vector of Eastern equine encephalitis virus in Brazil and Trinidad ( Vasconcelos et al. 1991), as well as of Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus and other viruses in Panama ( Galindo et al. 1966, Galindo & Srihongse, 1967, Srihonge and Galindo 1967). In addition, Ferro et al. (2003) stated that this species was one of three enzootic vectors of an active focus of Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEE - subtype ID) in Colombia. Similarly, the contributions by Turrell et al. (2005, 2006) reported isolations of eastern equine encephalomyelitis virus, two subtypes (Brazil-Peru and Panama-Argentina subtypes) from Cx. pedroi mosquitoes collected from the Amazon Basin in Peru. Turrell et al. (2008) also reported this species as primary enzootic vector of eastern equine encephalitis virus in the Amazon Basin of Peru.