The Argentinian taxon of the Pseudopunctipennis Complex described from Argentina is genetically distinct from Anopheles pseudopunctipennis sensu stricto based on the extensive geographic distance, egg morphology and different habitat ecologies (Dantur-Juri et al. 2004, Harbach & Wilkerson 2023). Anopheles (Anopheles) argentinus (Brèthes, 1912) is retrieved from synonymy with pseudopunctipennis, patersoni is made a junior synonym of argentinus and tucumanus is changed from a junior synonym of pseudopunctipennis to a junior synonym of argentinus (Harbach & Wilkerson, 2023).

Disease relations: Anopheles argentinus was the main vector of malaria in northwestern Argentina. Due to its wide distribution, anthropophily, endophily, endophagy and the ability to become infected with Plasmodium spp., it is the dominant malaria vector in Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru (Pan American Health Organization, 1994; Manguin et al., 1996). It transmits malaria in the mountainous regions during the dry season, from 600 m above sea level (masl) even in high areas of the Andes at more than 2,800 masl (Gorham et al., 1973).

Immature stages develop in shallow pools, preferably due to standing water, in places with full exposure to the sun or with medium shade, with pH values between 4.5 and 8.8 and with the presence of filamentous green algae of the Spirogyra type and in occasions with other green algae such as Cladophora and Enteromorpha, and also with emerging, submerged and floating vegetation (Manguin et al., 1996). They have also been extracted from phytotelmata Aechmea distichantha. Larvae of Anopheles argentinus were collected in association with larvae of Nyssorhynchus argyritarsis, Nyssorhynchus darlingi and Anopheles punctimacula. Female habits seem to vary from region to region. In the case of southeastern Mexico, the females are domestic, enter the houses and feed on human blood, although most of the time the attack occurs outside the house. They feed on cattle, horses, donkeys and the human being (Carpenter & LaCasse, 1955). They have also been captured at the edges of the forest, swampy areas where cattle graze.