Subgenus Stethomyia Theobald, 1902
Anopheles nimbus (Theobald, 1902), original combination: Stethomyia nimbus.
Subfamily Anophelinae, genus Anopheles. Subgenus Stethomyia includes only five species. Subgenus abbreviation – Ste.
Stethomyia are dark mosquitoes - they have no pale scaling on the maxillary palpi, wings or legs - with a median longitudinal silvery stripe on the scutum and no prealar setae. The gonocoxite of the male genitalia has an internal seta and a single long parabasal seta that is not borne on a tubercle. Larvae have widely separated seta 2-C, as in subgenus Cellia, the long pleural setae have thorn-like branches on one side only, abdominal setae 1 (float setae) are absent or vestigial, each anterolateral spiracular lobe has a narrow finger-like process and the spiracles are prominent and widely spaced. Pupae do not seem to bear subgeneric characters. See genus genus Anopheles.
Subgenus Stethomyia appears to be a monophyletic taxon, but its phylogenetic relationship with subgenus Anopheles, as currently defined, and its subgeneric status are uncertain (Sallum et al., 2000, 2002; Harbach & Kitching, 2005, 2016). Stethomyia was recovered as the sister to subgenus Kerteszia in the analyses of COI and COII mtDNA and 2.5S rDNA sequences conducted by Freitas et al. (2015). Oddly, Stethomyia was recovered as one of three branches of a polytomy comprised of 30 species of genus Anopheles and a species of Bironella in the study of Foster et al. (2017) based on analyses of mitochondrial protein coding genes.
Species of Stethomyia are forest mosquitoes. Very little is known about their bionomics. Females are known to feed on humans and other animals. Immature stages have been collected in shaded marshy and swampy areas along streams in forest.
Species of subgenus Stethomyia are not of medical importance to humans.
Species of subgenus Stethomyia principally occur in southern Central America (Costa Rica, Panama) and northern South America (Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela), but one or two species are known to occur on the Islands of Trinidad and Tobago and as far south as Peru and Bolivia.
Lane, 1953 (taxonomy); Cova-Garcia, 1961 (Venezuela); Forattini, 1962 (taxonomy); Wilkerson & Strickman, 1990 (keys, Central America and Mexico); Foster et al., 2017 (phylogenetic relationships).
acanthotorynus Komp, 1937 canorii Floch & Abonnenc, 1945 kompi Edwards, 1930 nimbus (Theobald, 1902) thomasi Shannon, 1933
