AUSTRALASIAN REGION
Etymology: not stated [Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch (Harbach 2018c, Kitzmiller 1982)]
Aedes kochi is an extremely ornate species, brown and covered with white scales in distinct patches “spots” and multiple leg bands of various sizes, giving a paint-spattered appearance. The pale and dark wing spots are analogous to those in genus Anopheles. It is the nominal species of the Kochi Group, in which adult females are difficult to distinguish from each other. Recent DNA barcoding studies in our laboratory revealed two distinct, sympatric species of Aedes kochi in Queensland, Australia, although how either of these relate to the nominotypical species described from New Guinea is unknown.
Type locality: Dreyer Hafen b Cap Cretin, New Guinea
Type depository: Zoologisches Museum der Humboldt Universität, Berlin, Germany
DIAGNOSTIC CHARACTERS (Click photos to view; mouse over and click large photo to zoom in.)
ADULT (illustrated): Head: Proboscis with broad median pale band. Thorax (dorsal): Scutal pale scales bright white; lateral scutellar lobes scales pale, dark scales present on midlobe. Halter with pale stem and dark-scaled capitellum; VI,VII-S with apical tufts of erect dark scales. Legs: Fe-I–III and Ti-I–III with many pale spots and rings; Fe-I–III with prominent apical scale tufts.Ta-III2,3 with basal ≥0.5 dark; Ta-III4 all dark. Wing: Contrasting pattern of dark and pale scales; prehumeral pale spot distinct; preapical pale spot on vein R, not vein C. Abdomen: VIII-Te with medial basal pale patch.
LARVA (not illustrated): Head: Seta 5-C single; seta 6-C 2,3 branched. Thorax/abdomen: Larval thorax and abdomen with conspicuous stellate setae. Terminal segments: Comb with ≥ 50 comb scales in several rows making a triangular patch; distal row of comb scales with 2–4 lateral spinules and spine-like apex; siphon without spicules; pecten spines illustrated.
TAXONOMIC KEYS
Marks 1947a
Marks 1958a
Lee et al. 1982
Lee et al. 1982
Lee et al. 1987b
WRBU – Aedes – Australasian Region – Larva
WRBU – Aedes – Indomalayan Region – Adult
WRBU – Aedes – Indomalayan Region – Larva
Exemplar DNA sequences
All Aedes kochi DNA sequences
BIONOMICS
Immatures
Female Ae. kochi deposit their eggs slightly above the water collected in leaf axils of Alocasia, banana, Crinum, pineapple, Pandanus, sago palm and taro. As these plants are important food sources in the Pacific islands, the species is closely associated with people and is a highly competent vector of filariasis across its range. and increase the association of this species with people. Larvae can move across moist surfaces and have the unusual behavior of flexing their bodies to jump a centimeter or more, to traverse into neighboring axils, presumably to evade predation, or seek out better food resources.
Adults
Reports of the biting behaviors of Ae. kochi are somewhat conflicting. The species is highly anthrophilic and will feed on horses, but appear not to feed on birds. Females readily bite day and night in New Guinea, but only at night on New Britain. In Australia, biting starts at 15:00, but peaks from dusk until 23:00. Females bites both outdoors and indoors, and are tenacious enough to squeeze their way through mesh netting to achieve their goal.
DISTRIBUTION NOTES
Australia, Indonesia (Kiriwina Island, West Papua), Philippines, Samoa (Ind. State of Samoa; American Samoa; Western Samoa), Solomon Islands, Tonga.
WRBU VECTOR HAZARD REPORTS
None; View other WRBU Vector Hazard Reports
Available GIS Models:
Ae_kochi_Dornak_1 Australasian
IMPORTANT REFERENCES (full citations below)
Dönitz 1901: 38 (F; as Culex)
Marks 1947a: 10 (M*, F, P*, L*; keys, taxonomy, distribution)
Marks 1958a: 73 (sensu lato, taxonomy)
Lee et al. 1982:174 (F key, taxonomy, distribution)
Lee et al. 1982: 174 (F key, taxonomy, bionomics, distribution, review)
Lee et al. 1987b: 217 (F key, taxonomy, bionomics, distribution, review)
Townsend 1990: 91 (syntype NHMUK)
Reinert 2002e: Fig. 6 (F*)
Reinert & Harbach 2005b: 160 (F, redescription)
CURRENT SYNONYMS
syn. ocellatus Theobald
1901a: 174 (F*). Type locality: Taipang [sic = Taiping], Perak, Malaya [Malaysia] (NHMUK). References: Townsend 1990: 114 (unavailable name, Art 11, International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature 1999).
syn. flava Ludlow
1908a: 32 (M, F; Cellia). Type locality: Camp Wilhelm [Quezon, Luzon], Philippines (USNM). References: Stone & Knight 1956b: 277 (type info., lectotype desig.).
syn. halli James
1910a: 33 (M, F*; Christophersia). Type locality: Sylhet, Assam, India (IM).
CURRENT SUBSPECIES
None
CITED REFERENCES
Dönitz, W. (1901). Nachrichten aus dem Berliner Entomologischen Verein. Insekten-Borse, 18, 36–38.
Lee, D.J., Hicks, M.M., Griffiths, M., Debenham, M.L., Bryan, J.H., Russell, R.C., . . . Marks, E.N. (1987b). The Culicidae of the Australasian region. Volume 5. Commonwealth Department of Health, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine Monograph Series, 2.
Lee, D.J., Hicks, M.M., Griffiths, M., Russell, R.C., & Marks, E.N. (1982). The Culicidae of the Australasian region. Volume 2. Commonwealth Department of Health, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine Monograph Series, 2.
Marks, E.N. (1947a). Studies of Queensland mosquitoes. Part I. The Aedes (Finlaya) kochi group with descriptions of new species from Queensland, Bougainville and Fiji. University of Queensland Papers, Department of Biology, 2(5), 1–66.
Marks, E.N. (1958a). New species and records of the Aedes kochi group from Eastern Australia (Diptera: Culicidae). Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, 69, 57–74.
Reinert, J.F. (2002e). Comparative anatomy of the female genitalia of genera and subgenera in tribe Aedini (Diptera: Culicidae). Part XIII. Genus Ochlerotatus Lynch Arribalzaga. Contributions of the American Entomological Institute, 33(1), 1–111.
Reinert, J.F., & Harbach, R.E. (2005b). Description of Finlaya Theobald, a genus in tribe Aedini (Diptera: Culicidae) and its type species Fl. kochi (Doenitz). Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association, 21(2), 154–170.
Townsend, B.C. (1990). A catalogue of the types of bloodsucking flies. Culicidae. Occasional Papers of the Natural History Museum (London), 7, 35–152.
CITE THIS PAGE
Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit (Year). Aedes kochi species page. Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit Website, http://wrbu.si.edu/vectorspecies/mosquitoes/kochi, accessed on [date (e.g. 03 February 2020) when you last viewed the site].
