Scanning Electron Microscopy of the Egg of Haemagogus Tropicalis

Abstract

Haemagogus tropicalis is strictly a forest-dwelling species from the fertile valley area of the Amazônia forest. It is a diurnal mosquito, and the oviposition sites for the species include tree holes. The eggs of Hg. tropicalis used in this study were from females captured on Combú Island, situated across from the city of Belém, Guajará Bay, state of Pará, at 1 degrees 25'S latitude and 48 degrees 25'W longitude. The eggs are elliptical and approximately 575 microm long with a width of approximately 144 microm. The ventral surface of the chorionic reticulum has regular chorionic cells with hexagonal and sometimes pentagonal ornamentation. Each chorionic cell has a thick external chorionic reticulum with regular borders. The interior of the chorionic cells have small, evenly distributed tubercles, and the dorsal external chorionic reticulum appears porous. The micropylar apparatus, located on the anterior area of the egg, was formed by a collar with a well-developed frame. Centrally, the micropylar disc had a diameter of approximately 20 microm and the micropylar orifice is 2.1 microm in diameter. These data may enable construction of taxonomic keys for identifying eggs of Haemagogus species.

Phylogeny and classification of tribe Aedini (Diptera: Culicidae)

“…Eggs of various species are illustrated in numerous articles, e.g. Howard, Dyar & Knab (1913), Horsfall & Craig (1956), Craig & Horsfall (1960), Ross & Horsfall (1965), Forattini (1965, 1996), Myers (1967), Kalpage & Brust (1968), Mattingly (1970, 1971, 1974), Horsfall, Voorhees & Cupp (1970), Horsfall & Voorhees (1972), Reinert (1972a, c), Matsuo, Yoshida & Kunou (1972), Moriya, Yabe & Harada (1972, 1973), Matsuo, Lien & Yoshida (1974a), Matsuo, Yoshida & Lien (1974b), Hinton (1981), Linley (1989), Linley & Chadee (1990, 1991), Chadee & Bennett (1990), Linley, Geary & Russell (1991a, b, c, 1992), Linley & Craig (1993, 1994), Service, Duzak & Linley (1997) and Alencar et al. (2003, 2005, 2008).…”

Mitochondrial genome sequencing and phylogeny of Haemagogus albomaculatus, Haemagogus leucocelaenus, Haemagogus spegazzinii, and Haemagogus tropicalis (Diptera: Culicidae)

“…Other species are also related to secondary YFV transmission in the country, such as Haemagogus albomaculatus Theobald, 1903 13 , 14 , Haemagogus spegazzinii Brèthes, 1912 15 , and Haemagogus tropicalis Cerqueira & Antunes, 1938 16 . This latter species is restricted to the Brazilian Amazon region 1 , 17 , 18 .…”

Scanning Electron Microscopy of the Egg of <I>Ochlerotatus albifasciatus</I> (Diptera: Culicidae)

“…Matsuo et al (1974) observed that the chorionic cells of Stegomyia aegypti (L.) and Stegomyia pseudalbopicta Borel have a large papilla in the central area and small tubercles on the periphery. In Haemagogus tropicalis Cerqueira & Antunes, there are always one or two tubercles of greater diameter in the central area, surrounded by smaller tubercles on the periphery, a characteristic that differentiates this species from others in the genus Hemagogus (Alencar et al 2008). Oc.…”

“…Scanning electron microscopy has opened up the possibility of performing detailed morphological studies with the objective, among others, of contributing to the identiÞcation of mosquitoes (Forattini 2002). Descriptions of eggs have proved useful to distinguish closely related species, such as the Anopheles quadrimaculatus complex (Reinert et al 1997), Hemagogus species (Alencar et al 2008), and Toxorhynchytes (Chadee et al 1987) species. Similar results may be obtained for species of genus Ochlerotatus, which includes some very difÞcult to differentiate species, except by male genitalia, such as Ochlerotatus hastatus (Dyar) and Ochlerotatus oligopistus (Dyar).…”