Genus Malaya Leicester, 1908
Malaya genurostris Leicester, 1908.
Subfamily Culicinae, tribe Sabethini. Malaya is a small genus of only 12 species. Genus abbreviation – Ml.
Adults of Malaya species are unique in having a setose, bent, apically swollen proboscis that is folded beneath the body when at rest. They are otherwise similar to the adults of Kimia and Topomyia, both have a conspicuous median longitudinal white or silver stripe on the scutum and lack setae on the upper calypter, which distinguish them from other Old World sabethines (Maorigoeldia and Tripteroides). In the areas where Malaya species occur, the larvae are distinguished from non-sabethine genera by the presence of a single pair of seta 4-X. Malaya larvae differ from those of Kimia and Tripteroides in having a slit-like occipital foramen and comb scales in two or more rows. The larvae of Malaya closely resemble the larvae of Kimia and Topomyia but are distinct in having the maxillary palpus fused with the maxillary body and seta 4-X single rather than branched. See Sabethini.
Malaya was recovered as the sister of Topomyia in the cladistic analyses of morphological data conducted by Judd (1996), Harbach & Kitching (1998) and Harbach & Peyton (2000), but was paired with Limatus when Harbach et al. (2007) included Kimia, which was established for species previously placed in Topomyia, in the data set of the last authors. Phylogenetic relationships among the species of Malaya have not been studied.
Larvae of species of Malaya occupy cavities, including the leaf axils of plants, tree holes and the water-filled nests of arboreal ants. Adults are active during the daytime. Their feeding habits are unique among mosquitoes. They feed on the regurgitation of ants – specifically, both sexes obtain a sugar meal from ants that have collected honeydew from scale insects (Hemiptera: Coccoidea) (Jacobson, 1909; Downes, 1958). To accomplish this, the mosquito accosts an ant and brings the tip of its proboscis into contract with the mouth of the ant until a drop of liquid is produced. The regurgitated liquid is rapidly sucked up and the ant goes away unharmed.
Malaya females are incapable of taking a blood meal; hence, they are not of medical of economic importance.
Species of Malaya occur in central Africa, through most of the Oriental Region and into Australia, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, China and the Ryukyu Archipelago.
Barraud, 1934 (as genus Harpagomyia, southern Asia, genus and species descriptions, bionomics, distributions); Thurman, 1959 (Thailand, taxonomy, genus and species descriptions, distributions); Belkin, 1962 (South Pacific, taxonomy, taxonomy, genus and species descriptions, bionomics, distributions); Tanaka et al., 1979 (Japan, taxonomy, genus and species descriptions, distributions, bionomics); Lee et al., 1988 (Australasian Region, taxonomy, literature, keys, descriptions, bionomics, distributions); Service, 1990 (Afrotropical Region, genus and species descriptions, keys, bionomics, distributions); Harbach & Peyton, 1993 (comparative morphology of larval maxillae); Rattanarithikul et al., 2007 (description, bionomics, keys).
farquharsoni (Edwards, 1922)
fraseri (Edwards, 1922)
genurostris Leicester, 1908
incomptas Ramalingam & Pillai, 1972
jacobsoni (Edwards, 1930)
leei (Wharton, 1947)
marceli (Mattingly, 1953)
moucheti (Hamon & Adam, 1955)
solomonis (Wharton, 1947)
splendens (de Meijere, 1909)
taeniarostris (Theobald, 1911)
trichorostris (Theobald, 1909)
