Culicinae

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Culicinae
Illustration of males and females of Culex quinquefasciatus

Illustration of males and females of Culex quinquefasciatus

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Fly (Diptera)
Subordination : Mosquitoes (Nematocera)
Family : Mosquitoes (Culicidae)
Subfamily : Culicinae
Scientific name
Culicinae
Meigen , 1818

The Culicinae are next to the Anophelinae one of two subfamilies of the mosquitoes (Culicidae). 3045 species from 108 genera are described within the Culicinae . It is named after the genus Culex described by Carl von Linné in 1759 , which includes 768 species. Representatives of the subfamily occur in all regions of the world , apart from Antarctica . The majority of the species are found in the tropics . The culicine mosquitoes are important vectors of disease .

features

Adults / adults

Adult culicinae keep their bodies parallel to the ground on which they sit. Usually the mandibular palps (maxillary palps) of the females, unlike the Anophelinae , are much shorter than the proboscis; in the males, however, the mandibular probes are similarly long. The back shield ( scutellum ) is three-lobed. The wing veins are usually completely covered with dark scales, only in some species there are spots or spots with white or yellow scales. Some species, such as the marigold ( Culiseta annulata ), have dark spots on their wings, as can be found in the genus Anopheles .

Larvae

As with all mosquitoes, the larvae , which are bound to the water, have a breathing tube at the end of their abdomen with which they attach themselves upside down to the surface of the water. In this position, most species swirl their food (microorganisms and suspended matter) out of the water with the help of their mouthparts, but they often graze on submerged surfaces or bend their bodies upwards to absorb food particles from the surface of the water. The larvae of the genus Toxorhynchites feed predatory, mainly on other mosquito larvae. The pupae of the Culicinae are difficult to distinguish from those of the Anophelinae.

  • Posture of a resting culicine mosquito using the example of a female yellow fever mosquito

  • Comparison of the resting position of a culicine mosquito (below; C) with that of adult Anophelinae (A, B)

  • Feeding of a culicine larva (below; B) compared to that of a representative of the Anophelinae (above; A)

  • Larvae and a pupa of a typical representative of the Culicinae

meaning

The culicine mosquitoes are important carriers of disease , for example the carriers of dengue , yellow fever , chikungunya , West Nile fever or certain roundworms . Malaria , on the other hand, is not transmitted by representatives of the culicinae , but by anopheline mosquitoes. Representatives that occur in the human environment such as the common mosquito ( Culex pipiens ), but especially also the flood mosquitoes , which often occur in very large numbers, such as z. B. Aedes vexans , or Aedes sticticus can be a significant nuisance for humans and animals.

On the other hand, representatives of the genus Toxorhynchites have been used with some success for biological pest control, as they do not suck blood and their larvae live predatory on other mosquito larvae.

Systematics

The 3045 species from 108 genera are grouped into 11 tribes :

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Subfamily Culicinae Meigen, 1818. RE Harbach: Mosquito Taxonomic Inventory, accessed on July 30, 2012 .
  2. ^ Culex. (No longer available online.) Walter Reed Biosystematic Unit: Mosquito Genera, archived from the original on March 4, 2011 ; Retrieved July 30, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / wrbu.si.edu
  3. ↑ a b Tribe Toxorhynchitini Lahille, 1904. RE Harbach: Mosquito Taxonomic Inventory, accessed August 1, 2012 .