About the White-Dotted Mosquito
Culex restuans is a species of mosquito known to occur in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and the Bahamas. It is a disease vector for St. Louis encephalitis and West Nile virus. In 2013 West Nile Virus positive specimens were collected in Southern California.
Culex restuans is a mosquito, falling within the family Culicidae. It is a member of the tribe Culicini and the genus Culex. It is considered part of the Pipiens group and the Restuans species complex. Culex restuans is a medium-sized brown mosquito, with adult female wing length ranging from 4 to 4.4mm. It is occasionally called the "white-dotted mosquito", referring to two white dots sometimes found on the dorsal scutum. This, however, is not a reliable character for identification because scales that constitute these spots can fall off and some adult mosquitoes eclose without these spots. Without these distinctive white dots, this species looks very similar to another medically important Culex mosquito, Cx pipiens.
A paper published in 2020 addresses the lack of reliable distinguishing characters between Cx. pipiens and restuans in reputable keys, and identified... Wikipedia →