An overview of the mosquitoes of Saudi Arabia (Diptera: Culicidae), with updated keys to the adult females Author Dawah, Hassan A. 0000-0001-5642-7247 Centre for Environmental Research and Studies, Jazan University, P. O. Box 2095, Jazan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia dawaha @ hotmail. co. uk; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0001 - 5642 - 7247 dawaha@hotmail.co.uk Author Abdullah, Mohammed A. 0000-0002-3323-3623 Department of Biology, College of Science, King Khalid University, PO Box 9004, Abha- 61413, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia mohd _ robiya @ hotmail. com; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0002 - 3323 - 3623 mohd_robiya@hotmail.com Author Ahmad, Syed Kamran 0000-0002-6211-2345 Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India entosaif @ rediffmail. com; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0002 - 6211 - 2345 entosaif@rediffmail.com Author Turner, James 0000-0003-2411-7396 National Museum of Wales, Department of Natural Sciences, Entomology Section, Cardiff, CF 10 3 NP, UK James. Turner @ museumwales. ac. uk; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0003 - 2411 - 7396 urner@museumwales.ac.uk Author Azari-Hamidian, Shahyad 0000-0002-9370-9638 Research Center of Health and Environment, School of Health, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran; Department of Medical Parasitology, Mycology and Entomology, School of Medicine, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran azari @ gums. ac. ir; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0002 - 9370 - 9638 * Corresponding author: azari @ gums. ac. ir azari@gums.ac.ir text Zootaxa 2023 2023-12-28 5394 1 1 76 https://mapress.com/zt/article/download/zootaxa.5394.1.1/52549 journal article 10.11646/zootaxa.5394.1.1 1175-5334 10438079 6D86633F-0167-414D-B511-550BCBE578CD Anopheles ( Cellia ) pulcherrimus Theobald, 1902 ( Fig. 12 ) Type locality. Lahore , Pakistan . Distribution. This species is found in the Oriental and Palaearctic Regions ( Azari-Hamidian et al. 2019 ). In the Middle East, it has been recorded in Bahrain , Iran , Iraq , Israel , Kuwait , Lebanon , Palestine , Saudi Arabia , Syria , Turkey and United Arab Emirates ( Mattingly & Knight 1956 ; Service 1986 ; Minář 1991 ; Glick 1992 ; Salit et al. 1994 ; Al-Houty 1997 ; Alten et al. 2000 ; Ramsdale et al. 2001 ; Rueda et al. 2008 ; Azari-Hamidian et al. 2019 ; Wilkerson et al. 2021 ). It was first recorded in Saudi Arabia by Mattingly & Knight (1956) . Remarks. Kirti & Kaur (2004) reported that there are variations in the ornatmentation of the maxillary palpi and wings in natural populations of this species collected in northwestern India . Therefore, taxonomists should be aware of this as it may lead to misidentification. Medical importance . Anopheles pulcherrimus is confirmed as a vector of malaria in parts of the former USSR and Afghanistan ( Onori et al . 1975 ; Sergiev et al. 1993 ). It was identified as a potential vector in Sistan and Baluchistan Province in southeastern Iran based on immunoradiometric assay detection of Plasmodium vivax ( Zaim et al. 1993 ) . Also, Tyagin and Rift Valley fever viruses have been found in this species ( Wilkerson et al. 2021 ).