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 Culex ( Culex ) decens Theobald, 1901c ( Fig. 28 ) Type locality. Bonny , Nigeria . Distribution. This species is widespread in the Afrotropical Region ( Wilkerson et al. 2021 ). In the Middle East, it occurs in Saudi Arabia , Syria and Yemen ( Edwards 1914 ; Knight 1953b ; Lewis 1956 ; Mattingly & Knight 1956 ; Abdel-Malek 1960 ; White 1980 ; Harbach 1985 , 1988 ; van Harten & Wagener 1994 ; Abdoon 2004 ; Al-Ali et al. 2008 ; Mutebi et al. 2012 ; Lemine et al. 2017 ; Tantely et al. 2016 , 2017 ; Wilkerson et al. 2021 ). It was recorded for the first time in Saudi Arabia by Abdoon (2004) . Remarks. Knight (1953b) and Harbach (1988) noted some morphological differences in the ventral surface of the proboscis and the scutal scaling between specimens from Yemen and the Africa. Medical importance. Culex decens is a vector of Sindbis and Usutu viruses ( Cornet et al . 1979 ), Moussa virus ( Quan et al . 2010 ) and Babanki, Bagaza, Kamese, M’Poko, Mossuril and West Nile viruses ( Fontenille 1989 ; Adam & Digoutte 2005 ; Tantely et al. 2016 ).