Belongs within: Culicomorpha.
Contains: Anopheles, Aedes, Sabethini, Culex, Uranotaenia, Tripteroides.
The Culicidae, mosquitoes, are a group of delicately built flies best known for the blood-sucking habits of adult females of the majority of species. Blood meals are required for maturation of developing eggs; male and female mosquitoes otherwise feed on liquid plant-derived foods such as nectar and honeydew.
Living mosquitoes are divided between two subfamilies, with the Culicinae having a respiratory siphon as larvae and scales on the abdominal tergites as adults, features absent in the Anophelinae. Anophelinae have the palpi as long as the proboscis in both sexes whereas it is much shorter than the proboscis in female Culicinae (Chaverri 2009).
Characters (from Stone 1981): Slender delicate flies, 3-9 mm long. Legs slender. Proboscis slender, much longer than head; labrum, mandibles, laciniae, and hypopharynx greatly elongate, stylet-like, enclosed in sheath formed by labium; palpus of male usually about as long as proboscis, with terminal segments often bearing dense tufts of long setae. Wing veins and usually most of the body and legs clothed with scales.
<==CulicidaeC09
| i. s.: Theobaldia annulataA71
| OpifexSS05
| |--O. (Nothoskusea) chathamicus [=Aedes (N.) chathamicus, Ochlerotatus (N.) chathamicus]SS05
| `--O. fuscusO81
| MimomyiaL91
| |--M. (Mimomyia) metallicaL91
| `--M. (Etorleptiomyia) elegansL91
|--Anophelinae [Anophelini]C09
| |--AnophelesC09
| |--BironellaC09
| `--ChagasiaC09
| |--C. bathana (Dyar 1928) [=Anopheles (Chagasia) bathanus]SK56
| |--C. bonneae Root 1927SK56
| `--C. rozeboomi Causey, Deane & Deane 1944SK56
`--+--Paleoculicis minutusGE05
`--CulicinaeC09
| i. s.: AedeomyiaC09
| |--A. catasticta Knab 1909L91
| |--A. squamipennisC09
| `--A. venustipesL91
| ArmigeresO98
| TopomyiaO98
|--AedesC09
|--SabethiniC09
|--ToxorhynchitesC09 [Toxorhynchitinae, ToxorhynchitiniL91]
| |--T. amboensisWT11
| |--T. hypoptesC09
| |--T. moctezumaC09
| |--T. (Lynchiella) rutilusS81
| |--T. (Toxorhynchites) speciosusL91
| `--T. superbusC09
`--CuliciniC09
|--CulexC09
|--UranotaeniaS81
|--TripteroidesL91
|--Malaya genuostrisCM70, L91
|--OrthopodomyiaS81
| |--O. alba Baker 1936SM37
| |--O. phyllozoaC09
| `--O. signiferaS81
|--MansoniaL91
| |--M. nigricansM46
| |--M. richiardiiKK91
| |--M. titillansC09
| `--M. (Mansonoides) uniformis (Theobald 1901) (see below for synonymy)L91
|--HaemagogusS81
| |--H. anastasionisKK38
| |--H. (Longipalpifer) equinus Theob. 1903S81, CA38
| |--H. janthinomysC09
| |--H. luciferC09
| |--H. mesodentatus Komp & Kumm 1938KK38
| |--H. panarchys Dyar 1921CA38
| `--H. tropicalis Cerqueira & Antunes 1938CA38
|--DeinoceritesS81
| |--D. cancerC09
| |--D. costaricensisC09
| |--D. epitedeusC09
| `--D. pseudesC09
|--PsorophoraS81
| |--P. ciliataS81
| |--P. columbiaeS81
| |--P. confinnisC09
| `--P. feroxC09
|--CoquillettidiaL91
| |--C. (Coquillettidia)L91
| | |--C. (C.) crassipesL91
| | |--C. (C.) iracundaD05
| | |--C. (C.) linealisL91
| | |--C. (C.) perturbansS81
| | `--C. (C.) xanthogaster (Edwards 1924)L91
| `--C. (Austromansonia) tenuipalpisD05
`--CulisetaS81
| i. s.: C. annulataKK91
| C. impatiensC09
| C. incidensS81
| C. inornataC09
| C. melanuraVD-VW14
| C. particepsC09
|--C. (Climacura) tonnoiriD04
|--C. (Culicella)L91
| |--C. (C.) atra Lee 1944L91
| `--C. (C.) inconspicuaL91
`--C. (Neotheobaldia) hilliL91
Mansonia (Mansonoides) uniformis (Theobald 1901) [=Panoplites uniformis; incl. M. australiensis Giles 1902, M. marquesensis Dyar 1925, Panoplites reversus Theobald 1901, M. reversus]L91
*Type species of generic name indicated
References
[A71] Askew, R. R. 1971. Parasitic Insects. Heinemann Educational Books: London.
[CA38] Cerqueira, N., & P. C. A. Antunes. 1938. Haemagogus tropicalis, a new species from Pará, Brazil (Diptera, Culicidae). Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 40 (1): 1–9.
[C09] Chaverri, L. G. 2009. Culicidae (mosquitos, zancudos). In: Brown, B. V., A. Borkent, J. M. Cumming, D. M. Wood, N. E. Woodley & M. A. Zumbado (eds) Manual of Central American Diptera vol. 1 pp. 369–388. NRC Research Press: Ottawa.
[CM70] Colless, D. H., & D. K. McAlpine. 1970. Diptera (flies). In: CSIRO. The Insects of Australia: A textbook for students and research workers pp. 656–740. Melbourne University Press.
[D04] Derraik, J. G. B. 2004. A survey of the mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) fauna of the Auckland Zoological Park. New Zealand Entomologist 27: 51–55.
[D05] Derraik, J. G. B. 2005. Notes on some adult mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) records from West Auckland. Weta 29: 12–15.
[GE05] Grimaldi, D., & M. S. Engel. 2005. Evolution of the Insects. Cambridge University Press: New York.
[KK91] Kamarinchev, B., T. Kovacheva, T. Christova, G. Georgieva & V. Zlatanova. 1991. Studies on mosquitoes and ticks as carriers of alpha-, flavi- and bunyaviruses. In: Dusbábek, F., & V. Bukva (eds) Modern Acarology: Proceedings of the VIII International Congress of Acarology, held in České Budĕjovice, Czechoslovakia, 6–11 August 1990 vol. 2 pp. 89–92. SPB Academic Publishing: The Hague.
[KK38] Komp, W. H. W., & H. W. Kumm. 1938. A new species of Haemagogus, mesodentatus, from Costa Rica, and a description of the larva of Haemagogus anastasionis Dyar (Diptera, Culicidae). Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 40 (9): 253–259.
[L91] Liehne, P. F. S. 1991. An Atlas of the Mosquitoes of Western Australia. Health Department of Western Australia.
[M46] Michener, C. D. 1946. The taxonomy and bionomics of some Panamanian trombidiid mites. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 39: 349–380.
[O81] O’Brien, C. O. 1981. A. A. Book of New Zealand Wildlife: A guide to the native and introduced animals of New Zealand. Lansdowne Press: Auckland.
[O98] Oosterbroek, P. 1998. The Families of Diptera of the Malay Archipelago. Brill: Leiden.
[SM37] Shields, S. E., & V. I. Miles. 1937. The occurrence of Orthopodomyia alba in Alabama (Diptera: Culicidae). Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 39 (8): 237.
[SS05] Snell, A. E., & P. J. Sirvid. 2005. Mosquitoes of the Chatham Islands: Notes on Opifex chathamicus (=Ochlerotatus chathamicus) (Dumbleton) (Diptera: Culicidae). Weta 29: 6–8.
[S81] Stone, A. 1981. Culicidae. In: McAlpine, J. F., B. V. Peterson, G. E. Shewell, H. J. Teskey, J. R. Vockeroth & D. S. Wood (eds) Manual of Nearctic Diptera vol. 1 pp. 341–350. Research Branch, Agriculture Canada.
[VD-VW14] Vossbrinck, C. R., B. A. Debrunner-Vossbrinck & L. M. Weiss. 2014. Phylogeny of the Microsporidia. In: L. M. Weiss, & J. J. Becnel (eds) Microsporidia: Pathogens of Opportunity pp. 203–220. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
[WT11] Wiegmann, B. M., M. D. Trautwein, I. S. Winkler, N. B. Barr, J.-W. Kim, C. Lambkin, M. A. Bertone, B. K. Cassel, K. M. Bayless, A. M. Heimberg, B. M. Wheeler, K. J. Peterson, T. Pape, B. J. Sinclair, J. H. Skevington, V. Blagoderov, J. Caravas, S. N. Kutty, U. Schmidt-Ott, G. E. Kampmeier, F. C. Thompson, D. A. Grimaldi, A. T. Beckenbach, G. W. Courtney, M. Friedrich, R. Meier & D. K. Yeates. 2011. Episodic radiations in the fly tree of life. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 108 (14): 5690–5695.