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 Aedes ( Aedimorphus ) arabiensis ( Patton, 1905 ) ( Fig. 19 ) Type locality. Ulub Camp and Crater , Yemen . Distribution. In the Middle East, this species is found in Saudi Arabia and Yemen ( Mattingly & Knight 1956 ; White 1980 ; Minář 1991 ; van Harten & Wagener 1994 ; Jupp et al. 2002 ; Miller et al. 2002 ; Alahmed et al. 2010 ; Al Ahmad et al. 2011; Al Ahmed et al. 2013 ; Al Ashry et al. 2014 ; Alikhan et al. 2014 ; Bakr et al. 2014 ; Wilkerson et al. 2021 ; Harbach & Wilkerson 2023 ). It was recorded for the first time in Saudi Arabia by Mattingly & Knight (1956) . Remarks. Aedes arabiensis was previously considered to be a subspecies of Ae. vexans (Meigen) ( Wilkerson et al. 2021 ) . Recently, Harbach & Wilkerson (2023) formally elevated it to species status. Muspratt (1955) , Gutsevich et al. (1974) , Reinert (1973) and Harbach & Wilkerson (2023) should be consulted for characters that distinguish the species from Ae. vexans . FIGURE 18. Anopheles turkhudi , male (Natural History Museum, London, photo by James Turner, National Museum of Wales). FIGURE 19. Aedes arabiensis , female (Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, photo by David Pecor, Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit). Medical importance. Rift Valley fever virus has been isolated from this species in Saudi Arabia ( Jupp et al. 2002; Miller et al. 2002 ). Also, this species is a probable vector of West Nile virus in Senegal ( Fall et al. 2012 ).