Little pigeons can carry great messages: potential distribution and ecology of Uranotaenia (Pseudoficalbia) unguiculata Edwards, 1913 (Diptera: Culicidae), a lesser-known mosquito species from the Western Palaearctic

Serhii Filatov

doi:10.1186/s13071-017-2410-3

Abstract

BackgroundUranotaenia unguiculata is a Palaearctic mosquito species with poorly known distribution and ecology. This study is aimed at filling the gap in our understanding of the species potential distribution and its environmental requirements through a species distribution modelling (SDM) exercise. Furthermore, aspects of the mosquito ecology that may be relevant to the epidemiology of certain zoonotic vector-borne diseases in Europe are discussed.ResultsA maximum entropy (Maxent) modelling approach has been applied to predict the potential distribution of Ur. unguiculata in the Western Palaearctic. Along with the high accuracy and predictive power, the model reflects well the known species distribution and predicts as highly suitable some areas where the occurrence of the species is hitherto unknown.ConclusionsTo our knowledge, the potential distribution of a mosquito species from the genus Uranotaenia is modelled for the first time. Provided that Ur. unguiculata is a widely-distributed species, and some pathogens of zoonotic concern have been detected in this mosquito on several occasions, the question regarding its host associations and possible epidemiological role warrants further investigation.

Highlights

Uranotaenia unguiculata is a Palaearctic mosquito species with poorly known distribution and ecology
Presence records for Ur. unguiculata unguiculata were compiled from a variety of sources, including review of the major literature on ecology and faunistics of Palaearctic Culicidae; records held in Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint Petersburg
Albeit the data scarcity did not allow to model the distribution of this subspecies directly, the potential distribution of the nominal subspecies observed in the present study suggests the latter scenario

Summary

Introduction

Uranotaenia unguiculata is a Palaearctic mosquito species with poorly known distribution and ecology. Uranotaenia unguiculata is the only species of the tribe Uranotaeniini Lahille, 1904 presently known to occur in Europe. Described from the Lake Kinneret area in Israel [1], the species for a long time was considered as a single representative of the genus in the entire Palaearctic region. (Pseudoficalbia) mashonaensis Theobald, 1901, in the same area in Israel. This finding highlights that this group of mosquitoes is grossly understudied in the region. Better-studied species of the Culicidae, very little is known about bionomics of Ur. unguiculata throughout its range. Associations with instars of the following mosquito species have been recorded in the literature: Anopheles algeriensis, An. hyrcanus, An

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