Subgenus Baimaia Harbach, Rattanarithikul & Harrison, 2005
Anopheles kyondawensis Abraham, 1947.
Subfamily Anophelinae, genus Anopheles. Subgenus Baimaia is monobasic. Subgenus abbreviation – Bmi.
Subgenus Baimaia appears to be related to subgenus Anopheles, especially the Aitkenii, Alongensis and Culiciformis Groups, but differs principally in features of the male genitalia, which are unique within genus Anopheles. The gonocoxite does not have differentiated parabasal setae or inner seta, and the gonostylus is flattened and mitten-shaped distally and lacks a gonostylar claw. Males also have uniquely developed maxillary palpi, which are straight and very nearly cylindrical with palpomeres 4 and 5 barely swollen and only slightly flattened. Adults lack thoracic scaling, and females have a dense covering of long sensilla between the antennal whorls that depart a fuzzy appearance to the antennae. Larvae have strongly inwardly curved antennae, setae 5,6,7-C reduced, long single compressed or flattened somewhat lanceolate setae on the thorax and abdomen, and seta 6 on segments IV‒VI as long as setae 6-I-III. Pupae have a trumpet that appears undifferentiated and intermediate between angusticorn and laticorn, spiracular scars of abdominal segments II‒VII and seta 9-II‒VIII borne ventrally, seta 1-III plumose and a long fringe of spicules on the inner and outer margins of the paddle. See genus Anopheles.
The phylogenetic study of Anophelinae conducted by Harbach & Kitching (2005) based on morphological characters revealed that Baimaia is the earliest taxon derived from an ancestor that gave rise to all other Anopheles. This, however, was not supported in the more rigorous later analysis of the data set by Harbach & Kitching (2016) in which Baimaia was recovered in a heterogeneous clade that also included subgenera Anopheles, Lophopodomyia, Stethomyia and genus Bironella.
The immature stages of the only known species of the subgenus apparently inhabit crab holes associated with streams or streamlets and are occasionally washed out of these habitats. Larvae have been found only in crab holes and small pools along the sides of streams shaded by forest in hilly and mountainous areas. Adults of this species have never been collected in the wild, and nothing is known about their biology or behavior.
The single species of Baimaia is not of medical importance to humans.
The only species of subgenus Baimaia has been found only in forested hilly and mountainous areas on either side of the Thai-Myanmar border located roughly between 14° and 17° north (Kanchanaburi and Tak Provinces, Thailand; Mon State, Myanmar), and at one other place approximately 400 km northeast of these localities near the Thai-Laos border in Nan Province, Thailand.
Harrison & Scanlon, 1975 (larva); Harbach et al., 2005 (taxonomy); Rattanarithikul et al., 2006 (key).
kyondawensis Abraham, 1947
