The Anopheles maculipennis complex (Diptera: Culicidae): comparison of the cuticular hydrocarbon profiles determined in adults of five Palaearctic species

Abstract

A comparison was made between the cuticular hydrocarbons of five Palaearctic species of the Anopheles maculipennis Meigen complex; A. maculipennis sensu stricto, A. melanoon Hackett, A. messeae Falleroni, A. labranchiae Falleroni and A. atroparvus Van Thiel. Females of these species had their cuticular lipid removed and the hydrocarbons separated and quantified by gas chromatography. Discriminant analysis determined the degree of difference between the species. Wild caught adults of the complex had an average correct classification rate of 77.9%. A. atroparvus and A. labranchiae are homosequential and have no uniquely diagnostic isoenzymes, but expressed distinct hydrocarbon profiles enabling them to be separated in more than 86% of cases. Similarly, A. maculipennis sensu stricto and A. melanoon differ only by minor karyotype alterations, yet their hydrocarbon profiles could be separated with 83% correct classification. A dendrogram was drawn up, based on the hydrocarbons, using the Mahalanobis distances between species. A. maculipennis sensu stricto and A. melanoon were the two closest groups; A. messeae was next to join the cluster, followed by A. labranchiae and then A. atroparvus. These last two species were also very close to each other, but quite distant from A. maculipennis sensu stricto and A. melanoon. The species' relationships based on hydrocarbons thus reflect the tentative chromosomal phylogeny of the complex. In nature, hydrocarbon differences between species may be a device enabling the recognition of suitable mates. Studies showing that hydrocarbon dissimilarity is elevated between sympatric populations are also discussed in support of this theory.

Variation in cuticular hydrocarbons among strains of the Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto by analysis of cuticular hydrocarbons using gas liquid chromatography of larvae

“…Hydrocarbon Anopheles gambiae differences among sympatric populations of An. gambiae s.s. (Phillips et al 1987, Milligan et al 1990 might reflect a semiological function of the compounds enabling the insect to recognise potential mates in those locations where sibling species coexist. In some insects, part of the mate recognition mechanism has been linked with the detection of specific hydrocarbon compounds and other components of the cuticular lipid layer e.g fatty acids, alcohols, sterols, aldehydes etc.…”

“…culicifacies ) and An. maculipennis (Phillips et al 1990), strains of An. stephensi (Anyanwu et al 1993), would be appropriate for separating the strains of An.…”

Comparative analysis of epicuticular lipid profiles of sympatric and allopatric field populations of Anopheles gambiae s.s. molecular forms and An. arabiensis from Burkina Faso (West Africa)

“…arabiensis Service, 1979, 1980); (ii) some species of the An. maculipennis complex (Phillips et al, 1990); (iii) malaria vector and non-vector forms of the An. maculatus complex (Kittayapong et al, 1990(Kittayapong et al, , 1993.…”

The ITS2 ribosomal DNA of Anopheles beklemishevi and further remarks on the phylogenetic relationships within the Anopheles maculipennis group of species (Diptera: Culicidae)

“…Classically, the palaearctic An maculipennis complex species are differentiated by the egg shell morphology (Hackett et al 1932;Bates and Hackett 1939;Korvenkontio et al 1979) but various other identification techniques have been employed: larval chaetotaxy (Bates 1939;Suzzoni-Blatger and Sevin 1982;Deruaz et al 1991), cytotaxonomy (Frizzi 1953;Kitzmiller et al 1967;Stegnii 1987), isoenzyme analysis (Bullini and Coluzzi 1978;Korvenkontio et al 1979;Stegniy 1982) and cuticular hydrocarbon chromatography (Phillips et al 1990). Owing to a lack of reliability and/or other disadvantages of the forementioned techniques in practical routine application, alternate identification methodologies have been searched for.…”