Family CULICIDAE

 

 

Culicidae, or mosquitoes, are found worldwide. Adult females of most living forms are blood feeders and are infamous as vectors of various diseases. Species of various genera are known to transmit malaria, filariasis, dengue, encephalitis, and yellow fever. Adult males are nonbiting and feed on plant fluids. Immatures are aquatic, occupying various types of bodies of water from leaf axils to large estuarine wetlands.

 

Culicidae as fossils are not common. Most listed in this catalog are known from compression fossils. However, there are a few records known from amber inclusions. One record of a mosquito from permineralized deposited of the Miocene Barstow Formation in California is a misidentification for a ceratopogonid (Park & Downing, 2001). Described species in amber are from the Eocene deposits of Baltic amber. Undetermined specimens are also known from the Miocene amber of Chiapas, Mexico (Poinar, 1992). The oldest published mosquitoes are from the Lower Cretaceous [Burmese amber (Borkent & Grimaldi, 2004) and the Purbeck Formation of England ( Corma & Jepson, 2012)]. Canadian amber by T. Pike (Poinar, 1992, 1993). Lambrecht (1980: 369) listed a fossil record of Culicidae from the Triassic; however, it is not known from which deposit the specimen referred to derives.

Records of adult specimens identified as mosquitoes are known from compression fossils from the Cretaceous in Mongolia (Inner Mongolian Geological Survey, 1976), and immatures are recorded from the Lower Jurassic of Germany (Bode, 1953) but the true familial placement of all of these taxa is still in question. Lutz (1985b) recorded an undetermined specimen from the Lower Oligocene of France and Cuffey et al. (1982: 120) listed a single specimen from the Oligocene Creede Caldera of southwestern Colorado. Japanese mosquito fossils were discussed by M. Stopes (in Edwards, 1923: 154–155), but neither their age nor the deposit in which they were found was given.

An interesting record of a culicid egg from the Oligocene Florissant shales is given by Cockerell (1913e: 125).



Ref.: Edwards (1923, 1932, revision of fossil taxa); Knight & Stone (1977, world catalog); Capasso (1993, fossil checklist).



 

 

Genus AEDES Meigen

 

*AEDES Meigen, 1818: 13. Type species: Aedes cinereus Meigen, 1818, by monotypy.


 

Subgenus FINLAYA Theobald

 

FINLAYA Theobald, 1903: 281. Type species: Culex kochi Dönitz, 1901, by subsequent designation of Blanchard (1905: 415).

damzeni Szadziewski, 1998a: 239. PA: Baltic Region (Eocene) [A].

hoffeinsorum Szadziewski, 1998a: 235. PA: Baltic Region (Eocene) [A].

 

Unplaced to Subgenus of AEDES Meigen

 

*ciliaris Linnaeus, 1767: 1002 (Culex). PA: Sweden; LU (Holocene) [K].


protolepis Cockerell, 1915c: 488 (Culex). PA: UK (England) (Eocene/Oligocene) [C].

            petrifactellus Cockerell, 1915c: 489. PA: UK (England) (Eocene/Oligocene) [C].

qaidamica Li, Yan, Shao, Du & Wen, 2010: 3. PA: China (Miocene) [C]. [Unavailable name; proposed in an electronic-only work before 2013].

 

 

Genus ANOPHELES Meigen

 

*ANOPHELES Meigen, 1818: 10. Type species: Anopheles maculipennis Meigen, 1818, by subsequent designation of I.C.Z.N. (1959a: 155).


rottensis Statz, 1944b: 109. PA: Germany (Oligocene) [C].


dominicanus Zavortink & Poinar, 2000: 1231. NT: Dominican Republic (Miocene) [A].

 

 

Genus BURMACULEX Borkent & Grimaldi

 

BURMACULEX Borkent & Grimaldi, 2004: 883. Type species: Burmaculex antiquus Borkent & Grimaldi, 2004, by original designation.

antiquus Borkent & Grimaldi, 2004: 883. OR: Burma (Lower Cretaceous) [A].

 

 

Genus COQUILLETTIDIA Dyar

 

COQUILLETTIDIA Dyar, 1905: 47. Type species: Culex perturbans Walker, 1856, by original designation.

Undetermined sp. - PA: Baltic Region (Eocene) [A] (Szadziewski & Giłka, 2011: 771).

 

 

Genus CULEX Linnaeus

 

*CULEX Linnaeus, 1758: 602. Type species: Culex pipiens Linnaeus, 1758, by subsequent designation of Latreille (1810: 442).


damnatorum Scudder, 1890: 582. NE: USA (Eocene) [C].


erikae Szadziewski & Szadziewska, 1985: 515. PA: Baltic Region (Eocene) [A].


            perkunas Podenas, 1999d: 113 (Aedes). PA: Baltic Region (Eocene) [A].

flavus Gistl, 1831: 247. NT: Brazil (Holocene) [K].


malariager Poinar, 2005: 549. NT: Dominican Republic (Miocene) [A].

*pipiens Linnaeus, 1758: 602. PA: Sweden & America; PA: Baltic Region (Eocene)[A], LU: (Holocene) [K].


protorhinus Cockerell, 1915c: 488. PA: UK (England) (Eocene/Oligocene) [C].


tanzaniae Capasso, 1993: 178. AF: Tanzania (Pliocene) [K].


vectensis Edwards, 1923: 151. PA: UK (England) (Eocene/Oligocene) [C].


winchesteri Cockerell, 1919a: 44. NE: USA (Eocene) [C].


Unidentified sp. -PA: Denmark (Eocene) [C] (Kalugina, 1991: 70).


Unidentified sp. - PA: France (Oligocene) [C] (Scudder, 1891: 620).



 

 

Genus CULISETA Felt

 

*CULISETA Felt, 1904: 391c. Type species: Culex absobrinus Felt, 1904 [= Culex impatiens Walker, 1848], by original designation.


gedanica Szadziewski & Giłka, 2011: 766. PA: Baltic Region (Eocene) [A].

kishenehen Harbach & Greenwalt, 2012: 26. NE: USA (Montana (Eocene) [C].

lemniscata Harbach & Greenwalt, 2012: 31. NE: USA (Montana (Eocene) [C].

Unidentified sp. - NT: Dominican Republic (Miocene) [A] (Grimaldi, 1993: 165).



 

 

Genus MANSONIA Blanchard

 

PANOPLITES Theobald, 1900: 5. Suppressed by I.C.Z.N. (1959c: 187). [Preoccupied by Gould, 1854.]


*MANSONIA Blanchard, 1901: 1046 (new replacement name for Panoplites Theobald). Type species: Culex titillans Walker, 1848, by subsequent designation of Nevue-Lemaire (1902: 214). [Ratified by I.C.Z.N. (1959c: 187).]


cockerelli Edwards, 1923: 151 (Taeniorhynchus). PA: UK (England) (Eocene/ Oligocene) [C].



martinii Statz, 1944b: 110. PA: Germany (Oligocene) [C].

      martinii Statz, 1941: fig. 13. Nomen nudum.

varivestita Statz, 1944b: 111. PA: Germany (Oligocene) [C].

      varivestita Statz, 1941: fig. 14. Nomen nudum.

 

 

Genus NEOCULICITES Evenhuis

 

Culicites Meunier, 1915b: 16. Type species: Culicites depereti Meunier, 1915, by subsequent designation of Evenhuis (1994: 234). [Preoccupied by Heyden, 1862.


NEOCULICITES Evenhuis, 1994: 234 (new replacement name for Culicites Meunier). Type species: Culicites depereti Meunier, 1915, automatic.


arvernensis Piton, 1936: 17 (Culicites). PA: France (Oligocene) [C].


ceyx Heyden, 1870: 252 (Culex). PA: Germany (Oligocene) [C].


depereti Meunier, 1915b: 17 (Culicites). PA: France (Oligocene) [C].



 

 

Genus OCHLEROTATUS Lynch Arribálzaga

 

*OCHLEROTATUS Lynch Arribálzaga, 1891a: 353, 367 [1891b: 143]. Type species: Ochlerotatus confirmatus Lynch Arribálzaga, 1891 [= Aedes scapularis Rondani, 1848], by subsequent designation of Coquillett (1910: 577).


*TAENIORHYNCHUS Lynch Arribálzaga, 1891a: 374 [1891b: 147]. Suppressed by I.C.Z.N. (1959c: 187).


serafini Szadziewski, 1998a: 240 (Aedes). PA: Baltic Region (Eocene) [A].

 

 

Genus PALAEOCULICIS Poinar, Zavortink, Pike & Johnston

 

PALAEOCULICIS Poinar, Zavortink, Pike & Johnston, 2000: 121. Type species: Palaeoculicis minutus Poinar, Zavortink, Pike & Johnston, 2000, by original designation.

minutus Poinar, Zavortink, Pike & Johnston, 2000: 121. NE: Canada (Upper Cretaceous) [A].

 

 

Genus TOXORHYNCHITES Theobald

 

*TOXORHYNCHITES Theobald, 1901a: 234 [1901b: 244]. Type species: Toxorhynchites brevipalpis Theobald, 1901, by subsequent monotypy in Theobald (1901b: 245).

[Name validated by I.C.Z.N. (1959b: 167). Type species conserved by I.C.Z.N. (1982: 122).]


brevipalpis Theobald, 1901b: 245. South Africa; widespread southern Africa [introduced to Pacific islands for biological control]

      loewi Giebel, 1862: 317 (Culex). AF: Tanzania (Pleistocene/Holocene) [K].

[Name suppressed by I.C.Z.N., 1982: 122 (Opinion 1213)].

mexicanus Zavortink & Poinar, 2008: 118. NT: Mexico (Miocene) [A].