The insupportable validity of mosquito subspecies (Diptera: Culicidae) and their exclusion from culicid classification Author Harbach, Ralph E. 0000-0003-1384-6972 r.harbach@nhm.ac.uk Author Wilkerson, Richard C. 0000-0001-6366-1357 wilkersonr@si.edu text Zootaxa 2023 2023-06-15 5303 1 1 184 http://dx.doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-04-22-0755-PDN journal article 53758 10.11646/zootaxa.5303.1.1 55cb0aa4-25b5-43fc-b545-54697a22b641 1175-5326 8043342 DE9C1F18-5CEE-4968-9991-075B977966FE Culex ( Culex ) argenteopunctatus (Ventrillon) subspecies argenteopunctatus ( Ventrillon, 1905 ) —original combination: Heptaphlebomyia argenteopunctata . Distribution: Only known with certainty from Madagascar (see below). subspecies kingii ( Theobald, 1913c ) —original combination: Heptaphlebomyia kingii (subspecific status by Edwards 1941 ). Distribution: Angola , Burkina Faso , Cameroon , Central African Republic , Democratic Republic of the Congo , Ghana , Kenya , Namibia , Nigeria , Republic of the Congo , Republic of South Africa , Senegal , Sierra Leone , South Sudan , Sudan ( Wilkerson et al . 2021 ). These and the following countries listed for argenteopunctatus sensu stricto by Wilkerson et al . (2021) most likely also pertain to kingii : Benin , Côte d’Ivoire , Mali , Mozambique , Nigeria and Togo . Culex argenteopunctatus was described and named based on specimens (adult male and female) collected in the environs of Antananarivo , formerly Tananarive, Madagascar . Subspecies kingii was originally described as a species distinct from Cx. argenteopunctatus based on two females , one collected at Nyumbe and the other at Alenga in the former Lado District (current Dokolo State) of present-day South Sudan . Theobald (1913c) stated that kingii “can be distinguished from the allied H. argenteopunctata , Ventrillon , by the abdomen having only small basal lateral spots and not ornamented as in Ventrillon’s species from Madagascar ; the antennae are also black in the ♀ , not yellowish, and the thoracic adornment differs.” Additionally, Edwards (1941) noted that kingii differs from the typical form in having broad and flat postspiracular scales as on other areas of the thoracic pleura, mesokatepisternal scales more numerous with the upper patch large and extending over the prealar area, and the hindfemur “white all round on basal fourth or more.” In his study of the adult, larval and pupal stages of Cx. argenteopunctatus in Madagascar (the larva and pupa of the typical form were not previously known), Brunhes (1967) pointed out morphological characters specific to the typical form as follows: “The most important of these distinctive characters seem to us to be in the larva; the comb of segment VIII formed by scales [not spine-like] and the spines [seta 2-S] of the dorsal valves of the siphon which do not have a plane of symmetry [elongate and not identical]; in adults, the narrow and curved postspiracular scales, the sternopleural [mesokatepisternal] spot of white scales which does not reach the prealar area, the two patches of pale scales on the nape of the neck [occiput] and the male terminalia [genitalia] which are different from those drawn by Edwards from a male of subspecies kingi [translated from the French].” Despite “these morphological peculiarities, allied to a geographical isolation”, Brunhes elected to maintain the typical form as a subspecies. On the contrary, in view of the morphological distinctions, as well as other differences in the adults, larva and pupa of the typical form noted by Brunhes, and its geographical isolation, we conclude, in agreement with Theobald (1913c) , that kingii is not conspecific with the Madagascan species. Thus, the continental form is hereby formally returned to its original specific status: Culex ( Culex ) kingii ( Theobald, 1913c ) . Culex kingii is currently listed as a species in the Encyclopedia of Life.