The Systematics and Bionomics of Malaria Vectors in the Southwest Pacific

Abstract

Please use Adobe Acrobat Reader to read this book chapter for free. Just open this same document with Adobe Reader. If you do not have it, you can download it here. You can freely access the chapter at the Web Viewer here. Anopheles mosquitoes-New insights into malaria vectors 358 Please use Adobe Acrobat Reader to read this book chapter for free. Just open this same document with Adobe Reader. If you do not have it, you can download it here. You can freely access the chapter at the Web Viewer here.

What are species and why does it matter? Anopheline taxonomy and the transmission of malaria

“…Since the 1990s it has become apparent that the situation is more complex. The biodiversity of this species group, and the extent to which it is made up of morphologically similar cryptic species, is only now becoming fully appreciated (Beebe et al, 2013). This is because genetic data have allowed further species-level distinctions to be made where morphological data alone are uninformative or (as it turns out) unreliable.…”

“…Below I explore some implications of this development. My debt especially to three recent reviews (Beebe et al, 2013;Sinka et al, 2012;White et al, 2011), which draw on much wider literatures than I shall do directly, will be very apparent.…”

“…And, as White and others (2011: 112) say, 'the rare species that possess all four of these traits [strong preference for human blood, physiological competence to parasite infection, long life, high population density] are not clustered phylogenetically but rather are interdigitated with nonvector species in four of six subgenera and even in sibling species complexes'. This statement applies globally (Sinka et al, 2012), in Africa (White et al, 2011), and in the Pacific (Beebe et al, 2013). It has long been known that anopheline species vary in their ecology, demography and behaviour as well as their distribution, in ways that affect malaria transmission patterns and the overall importance of each as malaria vectors (Bruce-Chwatt, 1985).…”

“…farauti (in the An. punctulatus group) occurs throughout the tropical parts of the region, though rarely far from the coast, and is thus sympatric with many other species (Beebe et al, 2013).…”

“…The southwest Pacific region -lying between Weber's Line in the west (running through the Moluccas) and Buxton's Line in the east, and centred on the islands and archipelagos of New Guinea, the Bismarcks, the Solomons, Vanuatu and Australia -may serve to illustrate this complexity. At best current reckoning, at least 56 Anopheles species occur in this region (Beebe et al, 2013;Foley et al, 2007). Most of these belong to one of five species groups endemic to the Australian Faunal Region (the An.…”