Sabethes lutzii explained

Sabethes lutzii is a species name designated a "nomen dubium" i.e., a "dubious (or doubtful) name," for a mosquito specimen that remains insufficiently evidenced to be accepted as a proved species.^[1]

Sabethes lutzii was first characterized in 1903 from a damaged specimen collected in Manaós, Brazil, in a letter written by the first scientist to view it, physician Dr. Adolfo Lutz, to entomologist Dr. Frederick V. Theobald who then described it in published literature.^{[1] [2]} The specimen was described as large in relative size, of a very dark blue uniform metallic color, and differing from other species by the lack of white scales marking the femurs.^[3]

Theobald indicated that the holotype specimen was in the British Museum (Natural History) collection, but it was not located there by a later researcher.^[1] More recent researchers have speculated that the holotype specimen may be represented by a slide of a mosquito wing marked "da Coll. do Dr. Lutz/XI-930/C.L." in the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz collection.^[4] However, due to the lack of certainty, the name is currently considered a nomen dubium.^[5]

Notes and References

1. John N. . Belkin . 1968 . Mosquito Studies (Diptera, Culicidae) IX. The type specimens of New World mosquitoes in European museums . Contributions of the American Entomological Institute . 3 . 4 . 1–69 .
2. Frederick V. Theobald. 1903. A monograph of the Culicidae or Mosquitoes. London: Brit. Mus. (Natur. Hist.) Vol. III, p. 323; http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112010058789;view=1up;seq=347.
3. Lima . A. da Costa . Sobre as especies dos generos Sabethes e Sabethoides: (Diptera: Culicidae) . On the species of the genera Sabethes and Sabethoides: (Diptera: Culicidae) . Portuguese . Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz . February 1931 . 25 . 1 . 51–64 . 10.1590/S0074-02761931000100003 . free .
4. Marchon-Silva . Verônica . Lourenço-de-Oliveira . Ricardo . Almeida . Magaly Dolsan de . Silva-Vasconcelos . Adenildo da . Costa . Jane . The type specimens of mosquitoes (Diptera, Culicidae) deposited in the entomological collection of the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil . Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz . August 1996 . 91 . 4 . 471–478 . 10.1590/S0074-02761996000400014 . free .
5. Thomas V. Gaffigan, Richard C. Wilkerson, James E. Pecor, Judith A. Stoffer and Thomas Anderson. 2016. "Culicidae » Culicinae » Sabethini » Genus Sabethes" in Systematic Catalog of Culicidae, Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit, http://www.mosquitocatalog.org/taxon_descr.aspx?ID=48, accessed 2 Mar 2016.