Geometric morphometric wing analysis represents a robust tool to identify female mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) in Germany

Accurate species identification is the prerequisite to assess the relevance of mosquito specimens, but is often hindered by missing or damaged morphological features. The present study analyses the applicability of wing geometric morphometrics as a low-cost and practical alternative to identify native mosquitoes in Germany. Wing pictures were collected for 502 female mosquitoes of five genera and 19 species from 80 sampling sites. The reliable species identification based on interspecific wing geometry of 18 landmarks per specimen was tested. Leave-one-out cross validation revealed an overall accuracy of 99% for the genus and 90% for the species identification. Misidentifications were mainly due to three pairings of Aedes species: Aedes annulipes vs. Aedes cantans, Aedes cinereus vs. Aedes rossicus and Aedes communis vs. Aedes punctor. Cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene region was sequenced to validate the morphological and morphometric identification. Similar to the results of the morphometric analysis, the same problematic three Aedes-pairs clustered, but most other species could be well separated. Overall, our study underpins that morphometric wing analysis is a robust tool for reliable mosquito identification, which reach the accuracy of COI barcoding.

Analysis of the Metaphase Chromosome Karyotypes in Imaginal Discs of Aedes communis, Ae. punctor, Ae. intrudens, and Ae. rossicus (Diptera: Culicidae) Mosquitoes

In this study, cytogenetic analysis of the metaphase chromosomes from imaginal discs of Aedes (Diptera: Culicidae) mosquitoes—Aedes communis, Ae. punctor, Ae. intrudens, and Ae. rossicus—was performed. The patterns of C-banding and DAPI staining of the heteroсhromatin and the length of the chromosomes demonstrate species specificity. In particular, the Ae. punctor chromosomes are the shortest compared with Ae. communis, Ae. intrudens, and Ae. rossicus, and they also carry additional C and DAPI bands in intercalary regions. The Ae. intrudens chromosomes are the longest, they have pericentromeric C bands, and they almost lack any DAPI bands near the centromere of chromosome 3 versus Ae. communis, which has the largest pericentromeric DAPI blocks in all three chromosome pairs. Ae. rossicus also possesses DAPI bands in the centromeric regions of all chromosomes, but their staining is weaker compared with those of Ae. communis. Therefore, the analysis of karyotypes is a tool for species-level identification of these mosquitoes.