Genus Bothaella Reinert, 1973
Bothaella helenae (Reinert, 1973), original combination: Aedes (Bothaella) helenae.
Subfamily Culicinae, tribe Aedini. Bothaella includes six species. Genus abbreviation – Bo.
Bothaella are dark brown to black mosquitoes with distinctive patches of silvery-white scales anteriorly on the vertex, the mesal side of the antennal pedicel, midlobe of the scutellum, antepronotum, upper proepisternal, postspiracular, upper mesokatepisternal, lower mesokatepisternal and upper mesepimeral areas of the thoracic pleura, the laterotergite of abdominal segment I and the lateral areas of abdominal terga II–VII. The erect scales of the head are arranged in a transverse posterior row, the postpronotum lacks scales and a lower anterior mesepimeral seta is present. The hindfemur is largely or completely pale-scaled proximally, hindtarsomeres 1–4 have basal and apical pale bands (except Bo. kleini, in which the hindtarsus is entirely dark-scaled) and both ungues of the fore- and midlegs bear a tooth. The gonostylus of the male genitalia is distinctly enlarged distally, the basal mesal lobe is expanded and heavily setose distally, and the proctiger lacks cercal setae. Bothaella larvae have a well-developed seta 13-P, seta 4-C and seta 6-C inserted far anterior to seta 7-C, seta 5-C and seta 6-C long and single, comb scales arranged in two or more irregular rows, evenly spaced pecten spines, a branched seta 1-S borne distal to the pecten, an incomplete saddle and a ventral brush comprised of eight or nine setae. Pupae have setae 4- and 6-CT, 3-II,III and 5-IV,V very long and single, seta 6-VII anterior to anteromesad of seta 9-VII and no seta 2-Pa. See Aedini.
The monophyly of Bothaella was confirmed in the phylogenetic study of tribe Aedini by Reinert et al. (2009). It appears to be the sister to Catatassomyia meronephada based on a unique combination of 12 homoplastic characters that are shared by the two taxa: two characters of adults, four setal characters of larvae, three setal characters of pupae, two characters of the female genitalia and one character of the male genitalia (Reinert et al. (2009: Fig. 2H). Bothaella fell within a polytomy with Belkinius, Catatassomyia, Udaya and Zeugnomyia in the phylogeny reconstructed by Wilkerson et al. (2015). In the absence of species of Catatassomyia, Bothella was recovered in a sister relationship with Nyctomyia + Borichinda in the maximum likelihood phylogeny of Soghidian et al. (2017) based on analysis of seven molecular markers.
Bothaella larvae have been collected from rock pools and rock holes, occasionally from tree holes, bamboo stumps and split bamboo. Females have been collected biting humans. Nothing else is known about the bionomics of these mosquitoes.
Bothaella are not known to be of medical or economic importance to humans.
Bothaella occur in the Oriental Region, principally Southeast Asia.
Reinert, 1973 (as subgenus of Aedes, taxonomy); Reinert et al., 2004, 2009 (generic status, morphology, phylogeny); Rattanarithikul et al., 2010 (Thailand, keys, bionomics); Cook et al., 2010 (phylogeny, DNA sequence); Wilkerson et al., 2015 (as subgenus of Aedes, phylogeny); Soghigian et al., 2017 (as subgenus of Aedes, phylogenetic relationships).
