SCIENTIFIC NOTE ANOPHELES PEDITAENIATUS(LEICESTER) NEW TO THE IRANIAN MOSQUITO FAUNA WITH NOTES ONANOPHELES HYRCANUS GROUP IN IRAN

ABSTRACT. Anopheles peditaeniatus is reported for the first time in Iran. Species of the Hyrcanus Grouppreviously reported in Iran, including An. hyrcanus, An. pseudopictus, and An. nigerrimus, are reviewed.KEY WORDS Anopheles peditaeniatus, Hyrcanus Group, Iran, Lesteri Subgroup, new record The genus Anopheles Meigen includes 6 subgen-era and at least 484 species (Harbach 2004). Thereare 29 species in the Hyrcanus Group (Harbach2004, Rueda 2005). The group includes 3 species(Anopheles hyrcanus (Pallas), An. pseudopictusGrassi, and An. chodukini Martini) in the westernPalaearctic region and other species occur in theOriental and eastern Palaearctic regions (Ramsdale2001).Previous studies showed that 3 species of theHyrcanus Group, An. hyrcanus, An. pseudopictus,and An. nigerrimus Giles, are present in Iran (Dow1953, Shahgudian 1960, Azari-Hamidian et al.2002). Anopheles pseudopictus, with completelypale hindtarsomere 4 and completely dark hindtar-somere 5, has been reported in Golestan, Mazan-daran, and Guilan provinces in the Caspian Sea lit-toral of northern Iran (Fig. 1) (Dow 1953 [as avariety of An. hyrcanus], Minar 1974 [as an aber-ration of An. hyrcanus], Zaim et al. 1995, Azari-Hamidian et al. 2002). Also, the School of PublicHealth (SPH) and the Institute of Public Health Re-search (IPHR) of Tehran University of Medical Sci-ences (TUMS) reported this species as a subspeciesor variety of An. hyrcanus in East and West Azer-baijan provinces in northwestern Iran (Fig. 1)(School of Public Health 1970). Anopheles hyrcan-us, with dark hindtarsomere 4, except at tip, andcompletely dark hindtarsomere 5, has been record-ed in Mazandaran and Guilan provinces in the Cas-pian Sea littoral and Ardebil Province in north-western Iran (Fig. 1) (Zaim et al. 1995,Yaghoobi-Ershadi et al. 2001, Azari-Hamidian etal. 2002). Christophers and Chad (1915) describedmesopotamiae as a variety of An. sinensis Wiede-mann from Khorramshahr in Khuzistan Province ofsouthwestern Iran (Fig. 1). [The exact type localityhad not been mentioned in the original paper, but