Genus Armigeres Theobald, 1901
Armigeres obturbans (Walker, 1859), original combination: Culex obturbans.
Subfamily Culicinae, tribe Aedini. Genus Armigeres includes 58 species divided between two subgenera, Armigeres (40 species) and Leicesteria (18 species). Genus abbreviation – Ar.
Armigeres adults are morphologically similar to species of other aedine generic-level taxa in the Oriental and Australasian Regions but they are generally larger and usually have the proboscis slightly curved downwards and flattened laterally. They are more reliably distinguished from other aedine genera with the following combination of characters: dorsal head scales mostly broad and flat; compound eyes separated ventrally by two long rows of scales; acrostichal setae, dorsocentral setae and prespiracular setae absent; postspiracular scales present; postspiracular setae present in species of subgenus Armigeres, absent in species of subgenus Leicesteria; mesomeron small with base more or less in line with base of hindcoxa; alula and upper calypter of wing with hair-like scales on margin; pulvilli not evident. Larvae are distinguished from all other aedine genera within their range by the absence of a pecten on the siphon. See Aedini.
Available evidence indicates that Armigeres is a monophyletic taxon that shares uncertain affinities with Belkinius (subgenus of Aedes in the traditional classification), Eretmapodites, Udaya and Zeugnomyia, which exhibited the following relationships in the cladistic analysis of morphological data in the study of Reinert et al. (2009): (Udaya + (Belkinius + Zeugnomyia)) + (Eretmapodites + Armigeres). As is generally true among higher-level taxa of Culicidae, these relationships are weakly supported, but this is not surprising since to date neither morphological nor molecular data have satisfactorily resolved deeper relationships among culicine genera (Harbach, 2007; Reidenbach et al., 2009). Armigeres was recovered as the sister to Alanstonea + Eretmapodites in the phylogenetic analyses of Wilkerson et al. (2015). Six species of Armigeres comprised a monophyletic group in the maximum likelihood phylogeny of Soghigian et al. (2017) based on seven molecular markers. Armigeres flavus of subgenus Leicesteria was basal to the five species of subgenus Armigeres (Ar. durhami, Ar. kesseli, Ar. malayi, Ar. obturbans and Ar. subalbatus).
Larvae of Armigeres species are found in small collections of water, particularly those containing foul water or water with a high organic content. They occur in hollow logs, rock holes, tree holes, stump holes, bamboo, Pandanus axils, sago palm and banana stumps, fruit shells and husks, fallen leaves and spathes, flower bracts, pitcher plants, artificial containers that contain organic matter and small collections of ground water. Larvae appear to be at least partially carnivorous. Adults occur primarily in forested and plantation areas and are mainly active during the daytime and crepuscular periods. The females of a number of species readily attack and viciously bite humans.
Several species of Armigeres are suspected of transmitting Wuchereria bancrofti.
Species of Armigeres occur in the Oriental, Palaearctic and Australasian Regions. Species of subgenus Leicesteria, with one exception, Ar. Annulipalpis, are confined to the Oriental Region. Armigeres annulipalpis is also recorded from Ceram Island in the Australasian Region. The genus is represented in the Palaearctic Region (China, Korea and Japan) by a single species belonging to subgenus Armigeres, i.e. Ar. subalbatus.
Barraud, 1934 (southern Asia); Thurman, 1959 (Thailand); Macdonald, 1960 (subgenus Leicesteria); Belkin, 1962 (taxonomy, South Pacific); Delfinado, 1966 (Philippines); Steffan, 1968 (Papuan Subregion of Australasian Region); Tanaka et al., 1979 (Japan); Lu & Li, 1982 (China); Lee et al., 1988 (Australasian Region); Darsie & Pradhan, 1990 (Nepal); Lu Baolin et al. 1997 (China); Darsie, 2000 (pupae); 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).
Armigeres (see).
Leicesteria (see).
striocrurus (Giles, 1904)
ventralis (Walker, 1860)
