Research on the mosquitoes of Angola - Systematic Catalog of ...

RIBEIRO, H. & RAMOS, H. Cunha -- <strong>Research</strong> on the mosquitoes of Angola X
some was considered by Edwards (8) and by Hamon & Ovazza (47) as
of the consimilis form, while the abdomen was surely distinctly pale
marked, since the series was identified by Galliard as a variety of bitaeniorhynchus.
Other instances of similiar discrepancies may be also found
in Hamon & Ovazza, op. cit., and Gfindara (10) (11) (Dilolo records,
p. 405).
In that concerns larvae, we could also confirm that the different
series of C. annulioris cannot be distinguished in the larval phase.
According to the above remarks, it is not surprising, of course,
that it becomes not possible to delimitate the geographical distribution
of each of the two forms of C. annulioris in a way coherent with their
presumed subspecific status. Such a delimitation is in fact not satisfactory,
either if we base our diagnosis on the abdominal scaling of females, or
on the terminalic characters of the males, or even less on both. And
that this is true also outside Angola, even if we consider only the external
morphology, is shown by the instances cited in the literature, as by
Edwards (8) (Nairobi and Bole, p. 295; the records by Schwetz, p. 296),
by Mattingly (48) (Kumasi and Takoradi) and by Hamon & Ovazza, op.
cit. (Akaki, Addis-Abeba and Kolda), in which both forms occur at the
same locality.
These are the reasons why the writers propose that C. annulioris be
treated as a monotypic polymorphic species with darker strains predominating
in forest biomes, in a way similar to that one is now generally
adopted for Ae. aegypti. This is also, naturally, the taxonomic treatment
adopted in the construction of our keys. Accordingly, previous records
of annulioris subspp. by Theobald (6), Edwards (8), and Gfindara (10) (11)
are here not included in the list of the Angolan mosquitoes.
The branching of head seta e will separate most of the larval specimens
of annulioris from those of bitaeniorhynchus/ethiopicus (see larval
key under 6).
DISTRIBUTION. As it is shown on Map 8, C. annulioris is widely
distributed in Angola, extending to both the West African and East-South
African Subregions, with the exception of semiarid biomes (cf. Maps 2
and 3).
BIOEOOLOGICAL NOTES. The characteristics of 93 breeding places
of C. annulioris were recorded, almost all of them (89) consisting in
t58 Estud., Etas. e Doc.- 134