MARCH1992 23 NOTES ON THE MOSQUITOES OF NEPAL: II. NEW SPECIES RECORDS FROM 1991 COLLECTIONS RICHARD F. DARSIE, JR. ‘, SHREEDAR P. PRADHAN~ AND RIDDHI G. VAIDYA~ ABSTRACT. In 199 1, intensive mosquito collections were accomplishedin six districts of easternNepal, representingthe terai, inner terai, foothills and mountains. Specimensbelonging to the subgenusDicerumyia of Aedesand 18 speciesin five genera were identified as new country records,and some were found in each of the six districts.Collection sitesand literature sourcesfor identification of these speciesare detailed. Mimomyia intermedia,collected in Makwanpur District in 1990, is also reported here. INTRODUCTION The first camp was in Dhanusa District in the midst of a secondary forest at 326 m A project was undertaken in 199 1 to study elevation. By crossing the nearby Churia the mosquito fauna of Nepal with the follow- Range to the north, the Kamala River Valley, ing objectives: 1) to increase knowledge of the inner terai of Sindhuli District at 430 m speciesoccurring in the country and learn elevation, was visited. The second camp was basicfacts about their biology; 2) to relate the at the edge of a virgin forest at 126 m in the Nepal mosquito fauna to the zoogeography terai of southeasternmost Jhapa District. of Culicidae in the Oriental Region; 3) to From this location we also travelled north to associate ecological changes in Nepal to Ilam District in the mountains, where collect- changes in the mosquito fauna; and 4) to ing occurred up to 1,208 m. correlate the findingswith prevalenceof mos- The other two campswere in mountainous quito-borne diseasesand known vectors. In terrain. Camp 3 was situated under a large this first report we are giving resultsof collec- Banyan tree (Ficus himalayensis)in Man- tions made during June to October, 199 1, in thale, Ramechhap District, in the valley of six districts of Eastern Nepal. Two were in the Tama Kosi River at an elevation of 560 the outer terai (lowland area), one in the inner m; however, mosquitoeswere sampled up to terai (river valley between the Churia Range an altitude of 1,378 m. Camp 4 was highest and the Mahabarat Range of the high Hima- at an altitude of 1,345 m in Rumjatar, Okal- laya Mountains). The other three were in the dunga District, and work extended up to Himalaya Mountains, the part called the 1,849 m. “Midlands” by Hagen (1960), i.e., with ele- We are reporting here 18 new country rec- vations between 500 and 2,000 m. Four ords: 11 in the genus AedesMeigen, two in camps, each lasting an average of 19 days, ArmigeresTheobald, one each in Culex Lin- were established. At each, field collections naeusand MimomyiaTheobald, and three in were processed.Some adults were mounted UranotaeniaLynch Arribalzaga. In addition, for study, others were saved in pill boxes; a speciesof the subgenusDiceromyia Theo- many immatures were individually reared, bald was recovered for the first time. The and exuviae or whole larvae and pupae were Mimomyia record was collected in Makwan- preservedin MacGregor’s solution. pur District during 1990; however, since this is a new record for Nepal, we include it here. ’ International Center for Public Health, Research,Uni- More Aedesspecies were collected because versity of South Carolina, P-0. Box 699, McClellanville, the sampling was concentrated in container- SC 29458. type habitats, such as tree holes and bamboo * U.S. Agency for International Development, Rabi Bha- wan, Kathmandu, Nepal. stumps. Geographic distribution of the new 3Entomology Section, Vector Control Division, Ministry country recordsis as follows: terai only-five, of Health, Kathmander, Nepal. inner terai only-one, mountains only- 24 MOSQUITO SYSTEMATICS VOL. 24, No. 1 eight, terai and mountains-two, inner terai Note: No adequate description of the male and mountains-two. genitalia has been published, Barraud With the increasein the fauna reported here (1934: 195, Fig. 37) illustrated only the gon- and thoselisted by Pradhan and Darsie ( 1990) ostylus and claspette. Therefore the recogni- and Darsie et al. (199 l), a total of 150 mos- tion of this speciesfrom two males depended quito taxa are now known from Nepal. Re- on Barraud’s non-genitalic description. The sults of mosquito surveysin the western and presenceof knee spots on all femora is diag- eastern Himalayan regions of India were nostic. Ramachandra Rao et al. (1973: 1435) given by Ramachandra Rao et al. (1973) and reported collecting this speciesat 1,700 m in Bhat (1975). They recorded in adjacent areas Himal Pradesh. of India some of the specieswe are including here as new country records for Nepal. Aedes(Finlaya) gilli Barraud Ahmed (1987) and Harrison et al. (1991) published lists of mosquito speciesoccurring Ramechhap District, Helipani, 1,200 m, in Bangladeshand Thailand, respectively. If VIII-31-91, lM, Ramechhap, 1,378 m, IX- the speciesreported as new to Nepal were not 5-9 1, 1M, reared from pupa; Okaldunga Dis- listed for those countries in the geographic trict, Chilauna, 1,801 m, 1X-23-9 1, 4M, all distribution by Knight and Stone (1977), it is reared from pupae, ex very turbid, chocolate- noted below. In the following collection data, colored water from tree holes. F = adult female and M = adult male, and Note: Barraud ( 1934:198) stated: “Hypo- the elevation of each locality is given in meters pygium does not show any marked modifi- (m). Voucher specimenswill be deposited in cation.” Therefore diagnosis was based on the National Museum of Natural History, Barraud’s non-genitalic characters. He must Smithsonian Institution. have missedthe long, stout, basal, mediodor- sal spine on the gonocoxite which is quite unique. Bhat (1975: 1594) recorded a female CONFIRMED NEW COUNTRY from Dehra Dun District of Uttar Pradeshat RECORDS 480 m elevation. Aedes(Diceromyia) iyengari Edwards Aedes(Finlaya) novoniveusBarraud Ramechhap District, Kudar, 580 m, 1X-9- Ilam District, Ilam, 1,208 m, VII-25-9 1, 9 1, lM, resting outdoors in shadenear bam- lM, reared from larva, ex bamboo; Okal- boo; Okaldunga District, Sangure Rumjatar, dunga District, Rumjatar, 1,345 m, IX- 14- 1,300 m, IX-2 l-9 1, IF, lM, resting in rock 9 1, IM, reared from pupa, ex bamboo; IX- crevicesin deep shade. 20-9 1, 2M, reared from pupae, ex bamboo; Note: This is the first species of the Okaldunga, 1,849 m, 1X-24-9 1, lM, reared subgenusDiceromyia to be collectedin Nepal. from pupa, ex rock hole; 1X-25-9 1, 5M, Diagnosiswas made from Reinert’s ( 1970:10, reared from pupae, ex bamboo. Figs. 2,9) descriptionsof the very distinctive Note: Only males of this specieswere col- females and male genitalia. It was reported lected, mostly associatedwith bamboo stumps from Bangladeshby Ahmed (1987: 190). and all taken at altitudes above 1,200 m. The genitalia were mounted and descriptionsand Aedes(Finlaya) christophersiEdwards illustrations by Barraud (1934:2 11, Fig. 44), Colless (1958:479; 1959:174) and unpub- OkaldwzgaDistrict, Chilauna, 180 1 m, IX- lishednotes and drawingsof K.L. Knight have 23-9 1, IM, reared from pupa, ex chocolate- convinced us that identification is correct. colored water from tree hole; Okaldunga, The upper and lower dorsomesalareas of the 1,849 m, 1X-25-9 1, 1M, resting outdoors on gonocoxite are covered with short setae and vegetation. the basal ridge is weakly developed. MARCH 1992 25 Aedes(Finlaya) poicilius (Theobald) on the postpronotum, present in Ae. promi- nensand absentin Ae. khazani. DhanusaDistrict, Bardiaghot, 326 m, VII- Secondary characters mentioned for Ae. 14-9 1, IF, collected feeding on the senior prominensby Barraud ( 1934:169) are pale author at 1930 h. scaleson lateral lobes of the scutellum and Note: The description of Knight and Laf- pale scaling over the hindtibiotarsal joint. foon (1946:22 1) was employed in its diagno- These were found to be very variable. For sis. It is the only Aedesspecies in the Indian example, no pale scaleson the scutellum or subcontinent with spotted wings. It has been the apex of the hindtibia occurred in 20 fe- recorded from Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri dis- males, pale scaleson the scutellum only in tricts of West Bengal State by Ramachandra four femalesand pale scaleson both scutellum Rao et al. (1973: 1438) at 150-450 m eleva- and hindtibia in three females. Among the tion. males all but one had pale scaleson the scu- tellar lobes,while eight had dark-scaledhind- Aedes(Finlaya) prominensBarraud tibiae and five had at least some pale scalesat the tibia1apex. Harrison et al. (199 1:203) have Sindhuli District, Tallo Ranibas, 430 m, recorded it from Thailand. VII-8-9 1, 1F, reared from larva, ex bamboo; Junga, 430 m, VII-9-9 1, 1M, resting on veg- etation; VII- 1O-9 1, 1F, 1M, reared from lar- Aedes(Finlaya) simlensisEdwards vae, ex tree hole; Ilam District, Ilam, 1,208 m, VII-25-9 1, 1M, reared from pupa, ex bam- RamechhapDistrict, Ramechhap, 1,378 m, boo; Jhapa District, Kanchanbari, 126 m, 1X-4-9 1, 1F, restingoutdoors on vegetation. VII-29-9 1, 4F, lM, reared from pupae, ex Note: Identification was based on the de- tree hole; VIII-2-9 1, 1F, attracted to humans; scription in Barraud (1934: 198). It is charac- VIII-7-9 1, 2F, reared from larvae, ex stump terized by absenceof femoral knee spotsand hole; RamechhapDistrict, Ramechhap, 1,378 with midfemur dark anteriorly except at base. m, VIII-3 l-9 1, IF, attracted to humans; This species has been noted by Bhat OkaldungaDistrict, Chilauna, 1,801 m, IX- (1975: 1595) from the western Himalayas at 18-9 1,6F, 3M, reared from larvae and pupae, 1,800 m. ex tree hole; IX-l 9-9 1, 2F, reared from pu- pae; ex tree hole; 1X-26-91, 3F, reared from larvae, ex turbid, brown-colored water from Aedes(Finlaya) unicinctus Edwards tree hole; Rumjatar, 1,345 m, 1X-20-9 1, 7F, 5M, reared from larvae and pupae, ex tree OkaldungaDistrict, Okaldunga, 1,849 m, hole; Okaldunga, 1,849 m, 1X-23-9 1, 2F, 1X-24-9 1, 1F, reared from pupa, ex bamboo; resting on vegetation; 1X-24-9 1, 2F, lM, Okaldunga Army Camp, 1,849 m, 1X-24-9 1, reared from pupae, ex bamboo; Rumjatar 1F, reared from larva, 1M, reared from pupa, Matillo, 1,300 m, 1X-26-91, 3F, resting on ex tree hole; 1X-25-9 1, 1F, reared from pupa, vegetation.