Culex pipiens Linnaeus, 1758.
Subfamily Culicinae, tribe Culicini. Culex is a large and important genus of mosquitoes. It includes 769 species. Seven species are without subgeneric placement; the remainder are divided between 26 subgenera (number of species in parentheses): Acalleomyia (1), Acallyntrum (8), Aedinus (4), Afroculex (1), Allimanta (1), Anoedioporpa (12), Barraudius (4); Belkinomyia (1), Carrollia (18), Culex (199), Culiciomyia (55), Eumelanomyia (77), Kitzmilleria (1), Lasiosiphon (1), Lophoceraomyia (112), Maillotia (9), Melanoconion (160), Micraedes (8), Microculex (33), Neoculex (26); Nicaromyia (1); Oculeomyia (19), Phenacomyia (3), Phytotelmatomyia (4), Sirivanakarnius (1), Tinolestes (3).
Culex adults are usually drab, unicolorous mosquitoes, but some species of the subgenus Culex have markings on the legs and pale spots on the wings similar to Anopheles. Culex are characterised by the presence of distinct pulvilli and the absence of prespiracular setae and postspiracular setae (the latter are present in Australian Cx. postspiraculosus). These characters, however, will not distinguish Culex from Deinocerites, Galindomyia and Lutzia. Culex differs from Deinocerites and Galindomyia in having the apical flagellomere of the antenna much shorter than the first flagellomere, and differs from Lutzia in having few (usually one) lower mesepimeral setae. Culex larvae are distinguished from other genera by the following characters: seta 2-C usually absent; seta 3-C located on dorsal side of head, sometimes absent; palatal brushes normal, not developed fro grasping prey; mandible normal, without lateral lobe at base; maxillary brush present, well developed; seta 12-I and comb always present; siphon with three or more pairs of prominent setae (seta 1-S); pecten normally present; saddle usually complete, sometimes incomplete and greatly reduced but never divided into dorsal and ventral sclerites or longer than the siphon; ventral brush (seta 4-X) usually with three or more pairs of setae. See Culicini.
Culex larvae occur primarily in semi-permanent or permanent bodies of ground water, but a large number of species live exclusively in leaf axils, tree-holes, rock-holes and crab-holes. Some utilise artificial containers as well as the normal ground-water habitats. A few species, including the filarial vector Cx. quinquefasciatus, are found in organically polluted waters. Culex females mainly bite at night. Many species attack humans and other mammals. Some species are known to feed on birds and some are known to feed on amphibians and reptiles.
Species of Culex occur in all zoogeographical regions. They range from the tropics to cool temperate regions, but do not extend to the extreme northern latitudes where only Aedes and Ochlerotatus occur.
Barraud, 1934 (southern Asia); Edwards, 1941 (adults, Afrotropical Region); Hopkins, 1952 (larvae, Afrotropical Region); Lane, 1953 (Neotropical Region); Mattingly & Knight, 1956 (Arabia); Belkin, 1962 (taxonomy, South Pacific); DuBose & Curtin, 1965 (keys, Mediterranean area); Forattini, 1965a (Neotropical Region); Cova-Garcia et al., 1966 (Venezuela); Delfinado, 1966 (Philippines); Bram, 1967 (Thailand); Bram, 1967 (subgenus Culex, New World); Belkin, 1968 (New Zealand); Sirivanakarn, 1968 (subgenus Lophoceraomyia); Belkin et al., 1970 (Jamaica); Sirivanakarn, 1971, 1972, 1976, 1977 (various subgenera, Oriental Region); Valencia, 1973 (subgenus Carrollia); Gutsevich et al., 1974 (former USSR); Tanaka et al., 1979 (Japan); Wood et al., 1979 (Canada); Berlin & Belkin, 1980 (subgenera, Neotropical Region); Ribeiro & da Cunha Ramos 1980 (Angola); Darsie & Ward, 1981, 2005 (keys, North America); Lu & Li, 1982 (China); Clark-Gil & Darsie, 1983 (keys, Guatemala); Sirivanakarn, 1983 (subgenus Melanoconion); Darsie, 1985 (keys, Argentina); Lu & Lu, 1987 (China); Lee et al., 1988, 1989a, 1989b (Australasian Region); Harbach, 1988 (subgenus Culex, southwestern Asia and Egypt); Darsie & Pradhan, 1990 (Nepal); Harbach & Peyton, 1992 (subgenus Phenacomyia); Pecor et al., 1992 (subgenus Melanoconion); Rattanarithikul & Panthusiri, 1994 (keys, medically important species, Thailand); Reuben et al., 1994 (keys, Japanese encephalitis vectors, Southeast Asia); Sallum & Forattini, 1996 (Spissipes Section, subgenus Melanoconion); Lu Baolin et al., 1997 (China); González Broche & Rodríguez R., 2001 (subgenus Nicaromyia); Tanaka, 2004 (subgenera, Oculeomyia and Sirivanakarnius); Rattanarithikul et al., 2005a, 2005b (keys, Thailand); Rossi & Harbach, 2008 (subgenus Phytotelmatomyia); Vesgueiro et al., 2011 (phylogeny); Demari-Silva et al., 2011 (phylogeny); Harbach et al., 2012 (phylogeny).
Subgenus Acalleomyia (see). Subgenus Acallyntrum (see). Subgenus Aedinus (see). Subgenus Afroculex (see). Subgenus Allimanta (see). Subgenus Anoedioporpa (see). Subgenus Barraudius (see). Subgenus Belkinomyia (see). Subgenus Carrollia (see). Subgenus Culex (see). Subgenus Culiciomyia (see). Subgenus Eumelanomyia (see). Subgenus Kitzmilleria (see). Subgenus Lasiosiphon (see). Subgenus Lophoceraomyia (see). Subgenus Maillotia (see). Subgenus Melanoconion (see). Subgenus Micraedes (see). Subgenus Microculex (see). Subgenus Neoculex (see). Subgenus Nicaromyia (see). Subgenus Oculeomyia (see). Subgenus Phenacomyia (see). Subgenus Phytotelmatomyia (see). Subgenus Sirivanakarnius (see). Subgenus Tinolestes (see).
Subgenus uncertain cairnsensis (Taylor, 1919) flochi Duret, 1969 inornata (Theobald, 1905) nigrimacula Lane & Whitman, 1943 ocellatus Theobald, 1903 punctiscapularis Floch & Abonnenc, 1946 romeroi Surcouf & Gonzalez-Rincones, 1912
Nomina dubia aikenii Aiken & Rowland, 1906 americanus Neveu-Lemaire, 1902 barkerii (Theobald, 1907) bernardi (Borel, 1926) chrysothorax Peryassú, 1908 chrysothorax Newstead & Thomas, 1910 decorator Dyar & Knab, 1906 epirus Aiken, 1909 fasciolatus Lutz, 1904 gravitator Dyar & Knab, 1906 harpagophallus Wang & Feng, 1964 humilis Theobald, 1901 indecorabilis Theobald, 1903 lugens Lutz, 1905 maculatus (von Humboldt, 1819) microtaeniata Theobald, 1911 mindanaoensis Baisas, 1935 molestus Kollar, 1832 nigrescens Theobald, 1907 nigricorpus Theobald, 1901 novaeguineae Evenhuis & Gon, 1989 oblita Lynch Arribálzaga, 1891 pallipes Robineau-Desvoidy, 1827 suborientalis Baisas, 1938 ventralis Walker, 1865 virgultus Theobald, 1901 vulgaris Linnaeus, 1792