The Specific Status of Aedes pionips Dyar (Diptera: Culicidae)

Abstract

The status of the mosquito Aedes pionips Dyar, 1919, has so far remained in doubt. The original description says in part, “Similar to lazarensis F. & Y. [=communis (Deg.)] but larger and more heavily marked.” Of the larva Dyar wrote, “…head hairs in fives; other characters essentially as in lazarensis.”In 1928 Dyar wrote, “Where the two occur together, as is frequently the case, the communis are all out of the pools weeks before the pionips have matured.” Also, “This [pionips] is a derivative species of communis, but quite distinct.” In his keys he separated the females by colour and the larvae by numbers of head hairs; the males were not separated.