Aedes cinereus Wiedemann, 1818. [Aedes cinereus is traditionally credited to Meigen (1818) but the heading “Aedes cinereus Hoffmgg,” and the description are both in quotation marks, followed by a statement that clearly shows that Meigen did not know or describe the species. Wiedemann apparently described the species and used a Hoffmansegg manuscript name (Sabrosky, 1999).]
Subfamily Culicinae, tribe Aedini, genus Aedes. Subgenus Aedes includes 12 species. Subgenus abbreviation – Aed.
ADULTS - Vertex of head with narrow curved scales, occiput with broad flat scales; maxillary palpi very short in both sexes, males with 3 palpomeres; scutum concolorousc paratergite with scales, lateral lobes of scutellum with narrow scales; scale-patches of thoracic pleura weakly developed, postspiracular scales present, subspiracular area bare, mesepimeral setae absent; both hindungues toothed in females, simple in males; laterotergite with scales, abdominal terga of males with numerous long apically curved setae; females with distal 0.7 or more of tergum VIII covered with numerous setae. MALE GENITALIA - Phallosome ided into a pair of plates or rods; gonocoxite short and stout, gonostylus bifurcate and attached subapically, gonostylar claw absent; claspette stem and filament absent. LARVAE - Siphon (as in species of subgenus Rusticoidus) with accessory anterolateral seta 2a-S in addition to seta 1-S. See Aedes.
Aedes was recovered as the sister of Paraedes + Verrallina in a paraphyletic relationship with Neomelaniconion and Edwardsaedes in the morphology-based phylogenies Reinert et al. (2009) and Wilkerson et al. (2015). Species of subgenus Aedes comprised a monophyletic group in a sister relationship to species of subgenus Paraedes in the molecular phylogeny of Soghigian et al. (2017).
Species of subgenus Aedes appear to be univoltine, over wintering in the egg stage and hatching in spring in pools formed by melted snow. One species, Ae. yamadai, is reported to hibernate as adults. The larvae are found in woodland ground pools, ditches, ponds, stream margins, sunlit temporary pools and occasionally in swamps and marshes. Females sometimes bite humans.
Species of subgenus Aedes are not medically important.
Aedes cinereus occurs in the Nearctic and Palaearctic Regions; the other 11 species of the subgenus are confined to areas of the Palaearctic Region.
Reinert, 2000 (female genitalia); Becker et al., 2003, 2010 (Europe); Gornostaeva, 2003 (taxonomy); Reinert et al., 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009 (as genus, morphology, phylogeny); Wilkerson et al., 2015 (phylogeny, classification); Soghigian et al., 2017 (phylogenetic relationships).
alexandrei Gornostaeva, 2005 cinereus Wiedemann, 1818 (in Meigen, 1818) dahuricus Danilov, 1987 dmitryi Gornostaeva, 2005 esoensis Yamada, 1921 geminus Peus, 1970 mubiensis Luh & Shih, 1958 nataliae Gornostaeva, 2005 rossicus Dolbeškin, Gorickaja & Mitrofanova, 1930 sasai Tanaka, Mizusawa & Saugstad, 1975 valeryi Gornostaeva, 2005 yamadai Sasa, Kano & Takahasi, 1950