Presence of mosquito species (Diptera: Culicidae) in pastures in Greece

Μosquitoes cause considerable problems in many areas of Greece and significant amount of money is spent every year for control programs. However, there is still a considerable lack of knowledge about the mosquito species occurring in the country. In an effort to enrich the existed list of mosquito species we investigated mosquito breeding habitats in 57 different locations of the country. Samplings were carried out in various types of larval habitats (river’s estuaries, lakes, ponds, streams, wells, permanent and semipermanent water), from April 2009 to August 2012. Eleven zoophilous mosquitoes’ species were recorded which can develop high population densities with the prevalence of appropriate climatic conditions. Those mosquitoes’ species may create problems for the animals that grazing near mosquitoes’ breeding sites and the people involved with them. We collected and indentified the following species: Anopheles claviger (Meigen) 1804, Anopheles hyrcanus (Pallas) 1771, Anopheles maculipennis Meigen 1818, Aedes caspius (Pallas) 1771, Aedes detritus (Haliday) 1833, Culex laticinctus Edwards 1913, Culex mimeticus Noe 1899, Culex pipiens Linnaeus 1758, Culex theileri Theobald 1903, Culex tritaeniorhynchus Giles 1901, Culiseta annulata (Schrank) 1776. Culex pipiens found in almost all breeding sites sampled. Among the collected mosquitoes some species are potential vectors of medically and veterinary arboviruses.