Identification Guide to Adult Mosquitoes in Mississippi es Identification Guide to Adult Mosquitoes in Mississippi By Wendy C. Varnado, Jerome Goddard, and Bruce Harrison Cover photo by Dr. Blake Layton, Mississippi State University Extension Service. Preface Entomology, and Plant Pathology at Mississippi State University, provided helpful comments and Mosquitoes and the diseases they transmit are in- other supportIdentification for publication and ofGeographical this book. Most Distri- creasing in frequency and geographic distribution. butionfigures of used the inMosquitoes this book of are North from America, Darsie, R. North F. and As many as 1,000 people were exposed recently ofWard, Mexico R. A., to dengue fever during an outbreak in the Florida Mos- Keys. “New” mosquito-borne diseases such as quitoes of, NorthUniversity America Press of Florida, Gainesville, West Nile and Chikungunya have increased pub- FL, 2005, and Carpenter, S. and LaCasse, W., lic awareness about disease potential from these , University of California notorious pests. Press, Berkeley, CA, 1955. None of these figures are This book was written to provide citizens, protected under current copyrights. public health workers, school teachers, and other Introduction interested parties with a hands-on, user-friendly guide to Mississippi mosquitoes. The book’s util- and Background ity may vary with each user group, and that’s OK; some will want or need more detail than others. Nonetheless, the information provided will allow There has never been a systematic, statewide you to identify mosquitoes found in Mississippi study of mosquitoes in Mississippi. Various au- with a fair degree of accuracy. For more informa- thors have reported mosquito collection records tion about mosquito species occurring in the state as a result of surveys of military installations in and diseases they may transmit, contact the ento- the state and/or public health malaria inspec- mology staff at the Mississippi State Department of tions. The first published mosquito records from Health or the medical entomologist at Mississippi MississippiAnopheles resulted crucians from an anophelineAn. punctipennis surveyAn. State University. pseudopunctipennis(malaria-related) in 1927An. in quadrimaculatuswhich the authors Acknowledgements reported , , , and (Car- An.ley andquadrimaculatus Balfour 1929).An. Two punctipennis years later, anotherAn. This publication would not have been possible malariacrucians study in the Mississippi Delta reported without the help and support of several individu- , , andAnopheles als and state and federal governmental funding (Perez 1930). A paper published in 1940 sources. Dr. Sally Slavinski, formerly with the by the State Board of Health discussed Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH), population densities in Mississippi but reported helped first establish the West Nile virus surveil- no specific species names (Bradley, Bellamy et al. lance program in 2001. Tim Darnell, Office of Envi- 1940). During the 1940s, several military-related ronmental Health, MSDH, supported the mosquito studies in Mississippi provided further records of survey and identification project from inception, as mosquitoes (King and Bradley 1941; King, Roth et did Dr. Ed Thompson (former state health officer, al. 1943; Middlekauff and Carpenter 1944; Car- MSDH) and Dr. Mary Currier (current state health penter, Chamberlain et al. 1945; Miles and Rings officer, MSDH). Partial funding came from a grant 1946; Michener 1947; Rings and Richmond 1953). from the Centers for Disease Control and Preven- Michener’s work was the most complete, revealing tion to the Mississippi State Department of Health 47 species from the Camp Shelby (Hattiesburg) titled “Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for vicinity of South Mississippi (Michener 1947). In Infectious Diseases (West Nile surveillance por- addition, a studyPsorophora on chemical confinnis controlcolumbiae of rice field tion),” U50\CCU416826-03. A health department mosquitoes in 1952 and 1953 in Bolivar County contract mosquito surveillance technician, M’Lee mentioned (as ) Hoyt Loe, collected several thousand specimens (Mathis et al. 1954). Later, the results of these from around the state from 2001 to 2003. Joe earlier records were summarized and provided a MacGown, Dr. Blake Layton, and Dr. Scott Willard, total of 53 species occurring in Mississippi (King et Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, al. 1960). 3 Unusual Mosquito In 1969, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Records from Mississippi conducted mosquito surveillance in Hancock County as part of a pest-monitoring program. All collections were made in February and March and There are several unusualAe. stimulansmosquito collection yielded only 10 relatively common species (USDA records from Mississippi. King et al. (1960) men- 1969). In the mid-1960s, Harden and Poolson tioned a record of two from Electric (1969) published a study to determine the season- Mills in Kemper County, Mississippi. Finding these ality of mosquitoes in Hancock County. During a two specimens several hundred miles south of 4-year collection period (1964–1968), a total of 33 their normal range is quite strange; however, the species was recorded. Almost all records from the record has been confirmed and acceptedAe. asdorsalis a valid 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s resulted from col- Mississippi record (Goddard and Harrison 2005). lections made by U.S. Air Force personnel at instal- Aedes Ther dorsalise is also a collection record of lations in Harrison and Lowndes counties (USAF from Como, Mississippi (Miles and Rings 1946). 1971; USAF 1975; USAF 1977; USAF 1978; USAF is ordinarily only found in the 1979; USAF 1980; USAF 1981; USAF 1983; USAF western United States. Even though we have no 1984; USAF 1986; USAF 1987; AedesUSAF 1988).albopictus voucher available, the specimen was apparently Records from 1989 show the first known pres- identified by Alan Stone, one of the foremost dip- ence of the introduced species in tera experts in the country, so we mustPs. pygmeaaccept this Mississippi (USAF 1989). A master’s thesis in 1974 as a valid Mississippi record. by Harry Fulton determined the seasonality of Harden et al. (1967) mentioned mosquitoes in Clay, Lowndes, and Oktibbeha coun- from Horn Island, Mississippi. Again, we have no ties. A total of 39 species was collected from March specimen available. Goddard and Harrison (2005) 1972Anopheles to November walkeri 1973Orthopodomyia during his study. alba SomeCulex of addressed this issue and determined that since pilosusthe most interestingCx. peccator findings in his survey includ- this species is restricted to southern Florida and ed , , no voucher specimen is available,Ae. nigromaculis the record must , and (Fulton 1974;Wyeomyia Fulton et al. be deleted. 1974). In 1977 and 1983, Bradshaw published two smithii There is oneAe. record nigromaculis of from papers on the pitcher-plant mosquito Harrison County, Mississippi (USAF 1990). The in Mississippi, with both papers reporting distribution of borders the west- collections fromSarracenia George County. purpurea He noted that the ern edge of Mississippi (Darsie and Ward 2005), so mosquito was found associated with the purple finding this species in Mississippi is certainly pos- pitcher-plant, , and its hybrids sible. Nonetheless, we have no voucher specimen (Bradshaw and Lounibos 1977; Bradshaw 1983). and thus no positive verification of this species In 1982, Nelson conducted a small study at Mays from Mississippi. Lake in Jackson, Mississippi, to determine the Mosquito Taxonomy and relative abundance and species composition of the mosquito population (Nelson et al. 1985). During Reclassification Issues the months of March through September 1982, a total of 13 species from five genera were recorded. In the late 1990s, research was conducted in For mosquito identification/surveillance, we use northeast Mississippi to determine arbovirus ac- the illustrations in Carpenter and LaCasse (1955) tivity in the adult mosquito population. Traps were and the keys of Darsie and Ward (2005),Aedes Slaff and set in a wetland in Tishomingo County to collect Apperson (1989), and Darsie and Morris (2000). mosquitoes for arboviral testing and to determine OchlerotatusWe have accepted the recent changes in species diversity. A total of 23 species was col- nomenclature by Reinert (2000)Aedes and recognize lected (Cupp et al. 2004). as the genus for certain species that were formerlyAnopheles in the quadrimaculatus genus . Abbreviations for genera follow Reinert (2001). As for species complex, s.l., we have 4 acceptedAn. thediluvialis ReinertAn. et inundatusal. (1997) classificationAn. maverlius representing 57 of the 61 species discussed are An.that quadrimaculatus there are five species An.in this smaragdinus complex consist- deposited in the Mississippi Entomological Muse- ing of An., maverlius An., quadrimacula-, um or in the Smithsonian Institution. Nine species tus An. smaragdinus, and . Three have been reported for which specimens have not of these species ( , been examined by the authors or verified as valid. , and ) have been recorded from Basic Mosquito RecentMississippi (Reinert Mosquito et al. 1997). Biology and Ecology Work in Mississippi Mosquitoes undergo complete metamorphosis, having egg, larval, pupal, and adult stages. Larvae In 2000, the Mississippi State Department of are commonly referred to as “wigglers” and pupae Health received a West Nile surveillance grant as “tumblers.” Larvae and pupae of mosquitoes