Hello!
Is there anyone that can give some advice on how to quickly differentiate (morphologically) the adult females of Anopheles gambiae sensu lato from those of Anopheles funestus in the field? Is there a particular feature to look for without using complex identification keys?
Many thanks;)!
Yes most Anopheles funestus there legs are always black while Anopheles gambiae are speckle and also body size of Anopheles funestus are smaller compere to Anopheles gambiae. i have been doing this identification without key and i have scored 97% after doing PCR.Contact me for more information.
I agree with Saul on this one, when you start, it is best to use keys as they can get really confusing sometimes. Relying on body size hasnt worked well for us but hte speckled legs always does the trick.
An. Gambiae
These groups of mosquitoes have their abdomen without
laterally projecting tufts of scales, the scaling on the
abdomen was scanting and confined to the 8th or rarely
7
th tergum. Legs are speckled with tarsi 1-4 having
conspicuous pale bands on the apices. The palps were
smooth or shaggy with pale bands and the 3rd preapical
dark area on vein 1 with a pale interruption, which
sometimes fused with proceeding pale spots.
Yes, leg speckling is a good indicator, as pointed out by others.
Another one is to look at the palps. An. gambiae usually have palps which are more or less smooth and have three pale bands. Pale band at apex is broad, followed by broad dark band, then a narrow pale band, and a very broad dark section. The third pale band (closest to head) is narrow too. An. funestus usually have smooth palps, also with three pale bands, but these are all narrow.
Another useful character is pale areas of costal region/vein R1 of wings - preapical dark spot on vein R1 usually has a pale interruption.
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