Anopheles claviger
| Anopheles claviger | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Diptera |
| Family: | Culicidae |
| Subfamily: | Anophelinae |
| Genus: | Anopheles |
| Species: | A. claviger |
| Binomial name | |
|
Anopheles claviger (Meigen, 1804) |
|
Anopheles claviger is a mosquito species found in Palearctic ecozone covering Europe, North Africa, northern Arabian Peninsula, and northern Asia. It is responsible for transmitting malaria in some of these regions. The mosquito is made up of a species complex consisting of An. claviger sensu stricto and An. petragnani Del Vecchio. An. petragnani is found only in western Mediterranean region, and is reported to bite only animals, hence, it is not involved in human malaria.
It was on An. claviger that Giovanni Battista Grassi established the fact that only the female mosquitoes are responsible for transmitting malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum in humans.
An. claviger was known for breeding abundantly in the Åland Islands of Finland. As a result, malaria was endemic in the islands for at least 150 years, with severe malaria outbreaks being recorded in the 17th century, and in 1853 and 1862.
Anopheles claviger was first described by Johann Wilhelm Meigen in 1804. However due to its close resemblance with other anopheline mosquitoes, the systematics was variously changed. Originally Meigen named it Culex claviger which he changed it to An. bifurcutus in 1818. This was for a long period the accepted binomial but soon they realised that Carolus Linnaeus had already used the name for the males of Culex pipiens. After a decade James Francis Stephens renamed it An. grisescens in 1828. A number of scientific names was introduced after they were discovered from one region after another. Some recognised synonyms are:
...
Wikipedia