Subgenus Ayurakitia Thurman, 1954
Aedes griffithi (Thurman, 1954), original combination: Ayurakitia griffithi.
Subfamily Culicinae, tribe Aedini, genus Aedes. Subgenus Ayurakitia includes only two species. Subgenus abbreviation – Ayu.
Adults of subgenus Ayurakitia lack postspiracular setae and scales. Vestiture of the thoracic pleura is restricted to small patches of broad silvery scales on the upper proepisternum, upper and lower mesokatepisternum and upper mesepimeron. The midungues of males are unequal and simple. Tergum IX and the gonostylus of the male genitalia are uniquely developed. The posterior margin of tergum IX has a wide, deep median emargination that separates broadly rounded lobes, each bearing a few thin, posterolaterally directed setae. The gonostylus is large and distinctively mitten-shaped. The female genitalia are unique among Aedini in having a large tergum VIII that is nearly covered with broad scales. Larvae differ from other Aedini in the development of setae 4-7-C, which have multiple aciculate branches, and the placement of setae 4-6-C, which are inserted in an equilateral triangular pattern. Additionally, the location of seta 8-C is unusual in being inserted well mesad of the frontal ecdysial line. Pupae of Ayurakitia are unique in having the outer part of the paddle ending before the apex of the inner part, with seta 1-Pa inserted subapically adjacent to the apex of the outer part. Pupae are also unusual in having seta 7-CT very long and double. See Aedes.
Ayurakitia was recovered as the sister to Diceromyia in the morphology-based phylogeny of Reinert et al. (2009). It fell within an eight-clade polytomy, including Diceromyia, in the phylogeny of Wilkerson et al. (2015).
Very little is known about the bionomics of species of subgenus Ayurakitia. Larvae have been collected from bamboo stumps and internodes, and the axils of bananas and Pandanus. Adults have been found resting on tree trunks and vegetation in jungle in mountain valleys.
The species of subgenus Ayurakitia are of no medical or economic importance to humans.
The species of subgenus Ayurakitia occur in the Oriental Region (Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand).
Reinert, 2000 (as genus, taxonomy); Reinert et al., 2004, 2009 (as genus, morphology, phylogeny); Rattanarithikul et al., 2010 (as genus, Thailand, keys, bionomics); Wilkerson et al., 2015 (phylogeny, classification).
