A study of the distribution and ecology of mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae)
in Ardebil Province of northwestern Iran, with special reference to the known
dirofilariasis focus in Meshkinshahr County, was carried out in July-August 2005 and
April-October 2006. In total, 17 533 adult mosquitoes and 3090 third- and fourth-instar
larvae were collected on 14 occasions and identified using morphological characters
and DNA sequence data. Twenty species belonging to seven genera were found:
Anopheles claviger (Meigen), An. hyrcanus (Pallas), An. maculipennis Meigen, An.
pseudopictus Grassi*, An. sacharovi Favre, An. superpictus Grassi, Aedes vexans
(Meigen)*, Coquillettidia richiardii (Ficalbi)*, Culex hortensis Ficalbi, Cx. modestus
Ficalbi, Cx. pipiens Linnaeus, Cx. theileri Theobald, Cx. torrentium Martini*, Cx.
tritaeniorhynchus Giles, Culiseta longiareolata (Macquart), Cs. annulata (Schrank)*,
Cs. subochrea (Edwards), Ochlerotatus caspius (Pallas) s.l.* (= Aedes caspius sensu
auctorum), Oc. geniculatus (Olivier)* (= Aedes geniculatus sensu auctorum) and
Uranotaenia unguiculata Edwards (asterisks indicate new occurrence records for the
province). The most prevalent species in adult catches were An. maculipennis (52%),
Cx. theileri (45%) and Cx. hortensis (1%); the most prevalent species caught as
larvae were Cx. theileri (27%), Cx. hortensis (21%) and An. maculipennis (19%).
Anopheles maculipennis, Cx. pipiens and Cx. theileri were most widely distributed in
the province. The occurrence of Cx. torrentium in Iran is verified based on differential
characters of fourth-instar larvae. Anopheles maculipennis and An. sacharovi of the
Maculipennis Group were identified from their diagnostic ITS2 sequences. For the first
time, cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) sequences were obtained from Iranian specimens
of An. hyrcanus, An. pseudopictus, Cx. theileri and Oc. caspius s.l. Culex theileri
and An. maculipennis were found naturally infected with third-stage (infective) larvae
of Dirofilaria immitis (Leidy) and Setaria labiatopapillosa (Alessandrini) (Spirurida:
Onchocercidae), respectively, for the first time in Iran.