Udaya argyrurus (Edwards, 1934), original combination: Paraedes argyrurus.
Subfamily Culicinae, tribe Aedini. Genus Udaya includes only three species. Genus abbreviation – Ud.
Udaya are small mosquitoes with conspicuous patches of silver scales on the head, thoracic pleura and abdominal terga. The adults are characterised by a spoon-shaped patch of broad overlapping silver scales that separates the eyes and extends to the antennal pedicels, absence of acrostichal setae, a patch of broad silver scales on the antepronotum that separates the setae into two groups, absence of scales on the postpronotum and postspiracular area, broad overlapping silver scales on the paratergite, and the alula of the wing has broad flat scales on the dorsal margin. Larvae are similar to species of the Aedes genus-group, Heizmannia and Zeugnomyia, but are distinguished by the following characters: setae 4,5,6-C placed far forward on the head and seta 7-C inserted far from the lateral margin of the dorsal apotome (distinctions from Aedes genus-group), comb with 10 or fewer scales in a single row (distinction from Heizmannia) and saddle of abdominal segment X without strongly developed spines along the posterior margin (distinction from Zeugnomyia). See Aedini.
Udaya was recovered as the sister of Belkinius + Zeugnomyia in the phylogeny of Aedini generated in the phylogenetic analyses of Reinert et al. (2009) based on morphological data, and this relationship formed part of a larger clade parenthetically expressed as Lorrainea + (((Udaya + (Belkinius + Zeugnomyia)) + (Eretmapodites + Armigeres)). Udaya fell within a polytomy with subgenera Belkinius, Bothaella, Catatassomyia and Zeugnomyia in the phylogeny reconstructed by Wilkerson et al. (2015). The only species of Udaya, Ud. subsimilis, included in the maximum likelihood phylogeny of Soghigian et al. (2017) based on molecular markers was paired with Heizmannia discrepans in a clade that included five other species of Heizmannia, suggesting that Ud. subsimilis was misidentified or that Udaya is not distinct enough from Heizmannia to justify generic status.
Very little is known about the bionomics of species of Udaya. Larvae of Ud. argyrurus and Ud. subsimilis have been collected from bamboo. Females of Ud. argyrurus have been found on occasion in catches of biting flies.
Udaya species are of no medical or economic importance to humans.
Species of Udaya occur in the Oriental Region, but their exact distributions are poorly known.
Thurman, 1959 (Thailand); Macdonald & Mattingly, 1960 (taxonomy, morphology); Reinert, 1990 (taxonomy, morphology); Reinert et al., 2004, 2009 (morphology, phylogeny); Rattanarithikul et al., 2010 (Thailand, keys, bionomics); Wilkerson et al., 2015 (phylogeny); Soghigian et al., 2017 (phylogenetic relationships).
argyrurus (Edwards, 1934) (in Barraud, 1934) lucaris Macdonald & Mattingly, 1960 subsimilis (Barraud, 1927)