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. 2014 Sep 19;(441):47–51. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.441.7743

Checklist of the family Culicidae (Diptera) in Finland

Larry Huldén 1, Lena Huldén 2
PMCID: PMC4200447  PMID: 25337007

Abstract Abstract

A checklist of the Culicidae (Diptera) recorded from Finland is provided.

Keywords: Checklist, Finland, Diptera, Culicidae, mosquitoes

Introduction

The family Culicidae comprises 3539 extant species world-wide. The Finnish fauna is relatively small in relation to world fauna. Because of medical importance this family has been extensively taxonomically studied but still new species are discovered. The generic and subgeneric classifications of Culicidae follow Reinert et al. 2009. Because of some confusing use of names in the first half of the twentieth century in the Finnish literature, all available names are included in the list for clarity. The most important work on the Finnish mosquitoes was done by Pirkka Utrio (1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979).

Number of species:

World: 3539 extant species + 25 fossil species (Harbach 2014)

Europe: 104 species (Snow and Ramsdale 2004)

Finland: 38 species

Checklist

suborder Nematocera Dumeril, 1805

infraorder Culicomorpha Hennig, 1948

superfamily Culicoidea Meigen, 1818

CULICIDAE Meigen, 1818

ANOPHELINAE Grassi, 1900

Anopheles Meigen, 1818

sg. Anopheles Meigen, 1818

Anopheles beklemishevi Stegni & Kabanova, 1976

= maculipennis auct. in part

Anopheles claviger (Meigen, 1804)

Anopheles messeae Falleroni, 1926

= claviger (of Fabricius, 1805) auct. nec Meigen, 1804

= maculipennis auct. in part

CULICINAE Meigen, 1818

Aedes Meigen, 1818

Aedes cinereus Meigen, 1818

Aedimorphus Theobald, 1903

Aedes vexans (Meigen, 1830)

Coquillettidia Dyar, 1905

Coquillettidia richiardii (Ficalbi, 1889)

Culex Linnaeus, 1758

sg. Culex Linnaeus, 1758

Culex pipiens Linnaeus, 1758

Culex torrentium Martini, 1925

sg. Neoculex Dyar, 1905

Culex territans Walker, 1856

= apicalis auct. nec Adams, 1903

Culiseta Felt 1904

= Theobaldia Neveu-Lemaire, 1902 preocc.

sg. Culicella Felt, 1904

Culiseta morsitans (Theobald, 1901)

Culiseta ochroptera Peus, 1935

sg. Culiseta Felt, 1904

Culiseta alaskaensis (Ludlow, 1906)

Culiseta annulata (Schrank, 1776)

Culiseta bergrothi (Edwards, 1921)

= glaphyroptera auct. nec (Shiner, 1864)

Culiseta subochrea (Edwards, 1921)

Dahliana Reinert, Harbach & Kitching, 2006

Dahliana geniculata (Olivier, 1791)

Ochlerotatus Lynch Arribalzaga, 1881

sg. Ochlerotatus Lynch Arribalzaga, 1881

Ochlerotatus annulipes (Meigen, 1830)

Ochlerotatus euedes (Howard, Dyar & Knab, 1913)

= beklemishevi Denisova, 1955

Ochlerotatus cantans (Meigen, 1818)

= waterhousei (Theobald in Waterhouse, 1905)

= maculatus auct. nec (Meigen, 1804)

= rusticus auct. nec (Rossi,1790)

Ochlerotatus caspius (Pallas, 1771)

Ochlerotatus cataphylla Dyar, 1916

Ochlerotatus communis (De Geer, 1776)

= nemorosus (Meigen, 1818)

Ochlerotatus cyprius Ludlow, 1920

= freyi Edwards, 1921

Ochlerotatus diantaeus Howard, Dyar & Knab, 1912

Ochlerotatus dorsalis (Meigen, 1830)

Ochlerotatus excrucians (Walker, 1848)

Ochlerotatus flavescens (Müller, 1776)

= lutescens (Fabricius, 1775)

= variegatus (Schrank, 1781)

Ochlerotatus hexodontus Dyar, 1919

Ochlerotatus impiger (Walker, 1848)

= parvulus (Edwards 1921)

= nearcticus auct. nec (Dyar, 1922)

Ochlerotatus intrudens Dyar, 1919

Ochlerotatus leucomelas (Meigen, 1804)

Ochlerotatus nigrinus (Eckstein, 1918)

= sticticus auct. nec Meigen 1828

Ochlerotatus nigripes (Zetterstedt, 1838)

= alpinus auct. nec (Linnaeus) nomen dubium

Ochlerotatus pionips Dyar, 1919

Ochlerotatus pullatus (Coquillett, 1904)

Ochlerotatus punctodes Dyar, 1922

Ochlerotatus punctor (Kirby, 1837)

Ochlerotatus riparius Dyar & Knab, 1907

Notes

Anopheles maculipennis Meigen, 1818. Not recorded in Finland. All previous reports refer to Anopheles messeae or Anopheles beklemishevi.

Anopheles claviger (of Fabricius, 1805). Mistaken name usage for Anopheles maculipennis s. lat. in the early 20th century Finnish literature which then followed the Italian tradition.

Culex pipiens f. molestus Forskåhl, 1775. This is not a valid species level taxon. It is a man biting form of the mainly bird biting Culex pipiens. Both have been reported from Finland.

Dahliana geniculata (Oliver, 1791). A possibly occasional specimen of this species was collected in Western Finland, verified by Christine Dahl (Itämies 1981).

Ochlerotatus alpinus L.Frey (1921) included this invalid species name (see Harbach 2014) in the Finnish list with a question mark. Hellén (1931) withdrew it from the Finnish list. According to Utrio (1977), Frey refers to nigripes (Zetterstedt, 1838).

Ochlerotatus behningi Martini, 1926. The species is listed for both Finland and Sweden in Dahl (1997). Lundström et al. (2013) do not accept the report for Sweden because of absence of documented locality. Based on the same argument, we do not include this species in the Finnish list.

Ochlerotatus (Rusticoidus) rusticus (Rossi, 1790). Dahl (1997) listed this species for Finland. There are, however, no confirmed collections of the species in Finland. Frey (1921) listed Aedes maculatus Meigen (with Aedes waterhousei Theobald as a presumed synonym) from Finland. According to Natvig (1948), Meigen made a mistake in 1830 when he stated that “maculatus is the male of cantans” instead of “reptans is the male of cantans”, leading to a switch in synonyms. According to Minar (1990) the correct combinations should be as follows: maculatus Meigen is a synonym of rusticus (Rossi) and both reptans (Meigen) and waterhousei (Theobald) are synonyms of cantans (Meigen). From this context, it is obvious that Frey refers to the common species cantans and not to the southern species rusticus.

Ochlerotatus sticticus (Meigen, 1838). The species was reported from Finland (Kilpisjärvi) by Frey (1932) and listed for Finland in Frey and Storå (1941). According to Natvig (1948) and Utrio (1979) this record refers to Aedes nigrinus (Eckstein). In addition, it was reported by Syrjämäki (1960) in Finland (Hanko: Tvärminne) but later withdrawn by the author according to Utrio (1979, personal communication). It was also included for Finland in Dahl (1997), probably based on the former reports. According to Gutsevich et al. (1970) this species occurs in Russian Karelia. Thus, Aedes sticticus is not included in the Finnish list.

Culex apicalis Adams, 1903. Originally reported by Martini (1928) from Finland. All European reports of this Nearctic species before 1950 represent the closely related Holarctic species Culex territans (Becker et al. 2003).

Citation

Huldén L, Huldén L (2014) Checklist of the Culicidae (Diptera) in Finland. In: Kahanpää J, Salmela J (Eds) Checklist of the Diptera of Finland. ZooKeys 441: 47–51. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.441.7743

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