Culicidae (Diptera: Culicomorpha) in the southern Brazilian ‘Ana Leuch Lozovei’ collection, with notes on distribution and diversity

Biological collections are important for acquiring knowledge of the biodiversity of a specific environment. Here, we organize, list and catalog adult specimens of Culicidae from the Parasitology Collection of the Basic Pathology Department at the Federal University of Paraná, Brazil, and present a databank of taxonomic and collection information for each sample. Culicids were collected using different methodologies in 18 municipalities in Paraná state, between 1967 and 1999. There are 5,739 catalogued specimens, of which 4,703 (81.94%) are identified at species level, with a diversity of 100 species. Of these, 18 are new recorded samples for Paraná, and three are new for Brazil. This collection is named the Ana Leuch Lozovei Entomological Collection in honor of the 30 years Prof Lovozei dedicated to culicid study in Paraná. The collection comprises insect vectors or potential vectors, of agents causing human diseases.

In addition to their importance for human health, culicids participate in the transmission of diverse pathogens causing diseases of veterinary interest, some of which, such as equine infectious anemia (EIA), dirofilariasis and West Nile fever [76][77][78][79][80], have zoonotic potential, reaffirming the importance of culicids in the epidemiological chain of diseases transmitted by vectors [17, 81,82].
It has a territorial area of 199,298 km 2 [83], comprising five phytogeographic regions: seasonal semideciduous forest, mixed ombrophilous forest, dense ombrophilous forest, steppe and savanna [84,85]. According to Köppen classification, the climate in Paraná is divided into subtropical and tropical, with an average annual temperature of 19°C (varying between 25.9 and 12°C), and average annual precipitation of 1300 mm [86].

Collecting methods
The geographical coordinates of the 18 sample municipalities were extracted from the platform Global Gazetteer (Version 2.3) [91]. These data were the basis for creating a map covering the phytogeographic areas [85],

REUSE POTENTIAL
Climatic alterations with constant modifications in the environment over time promote significant changes in biodiversity, above all in the insect population, where there is greater dispersion in the environment, mainly in species of medical/epidemiological interest. The data made available in this work have fundamental potential for future studies in ecology, the environment and biodiversity, especially for species of medical interest from the perspective of public health. An important point about the current collection is that it represents 18 first-recorded species for Paraná state, serving as an important reference for research into the biodiversity of mosquitoes. This demonstrates and reaffirms the importance of maintaining and constantly updating biological collections.

DATA AVAILABILITY
The dataset supporting this article is available in the SiBBr repository [99].

ETHICAL APPROVAL
Not applicable.

COMPETING INTERESTS
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

FUNDING
Not applicable.

AUTHORS' CONTRIBUTIONS
MSC: writing of the manuscript, compilation and organization of data; SCE: sample collecting, identification, data revision and writing of the manuscript; LGSN: sample collecting, identification, data revision; ALSA: sample collecting and identification; GPM: compilation and organization of data; DRK: writing of the manuscript, collection maintenance; TMB: writing of the manuscript; CLSI: writing of the manuscript and data revision; RAG: writing of the manuscript and data revision; ALL: sample collecting, identification; AJA: writing of the manuscript, compilation and organization of data. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.