Vol. 2, Issue 2, Part B (2015)

Author(s): B.K. Tyagi, A. Munirathinam and A. Venkatesh

Abstract: An annotated catalogue for Indian mosquitoes has been prepared with a view to primarily enlist all the extant taxa, along with simplified field-friendly identification keys for the 4th instar larvae and adults of the major vector species of public health importance in India. This is by far the most complete and comprehensive inventory compiled post-independence in single volume of the entire mosquito faunal wealth in the country. The Catalogue offers many novelties; first, it has inventoried the largest ever number of 404 species and subspecies (which is >12% of the total number of taxa in the world, i.e., 3541), belonging to 50 genera and 2 subfamilies (12 tribes); secondly, it has organized all the taxa in a more modern and universally acceptable classificatory system proposed by Harbach [(2014). Mosquito taxonomic inventory, http://mosquito-taxonomic-inventory.info/node/11667; accessed 31st July, 2014)], with of course some consideration of the other popular systems earlier used by Christophers (1933) and Barraud (1934) in their respective magnum opuses ‘Anophelini’, and ‘Culicini and Magarhirini’ under CULICIDAE volumes of the internationally famous The Fauna of British India series; and thirdly, in order to facilitate field entomologists who urgently need a simple and practical identification keys for all the major vector species, a diagrammatic description aided with the most directly applicable dichotomous identification keys is offered.