Systematics and population level analysis of Anopheles darlingi

A new phylogenetic analysis of the Nyssorhynchus subgenus (Danoff-Burg and Conn, unpub. data) using six data sets morphological (all life stages); scanning electron micrographs of eggs; nuclear ITS2 sequences; mitochondrial COII, ND2 and ND6 sequences) revealed different topologies when each data set was analyzed separately but no heterogeneity between the data sets using the arn test. Consequently, the most accurate estimate of the phylogeny was obtained when all the data were combined. This new phylogeny supports a monophyletic Nyssorhynchus subgenus but both previously recognized sections in the subgenus (Albimanus and Argyritarsis) were demonstrated to be paraphyletic relative to each other and four of the seven clades inclueded species previously placed in both sections. One of these clades included both Anopheles darlingi and An. albimanus, suggesting that the ability to vector malaria effectively may have originated once in this subgenus. Both a conserved (315 bp) and a variable (425 bp) region of the mitochondrial COI gene from 15 populations of An. darlingi from Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, French Guiana, Peru and Venezuela were used to examine the evolutionary history species and to test several analytical assumptions. Results demonstrated (1) parsimony analysis is equally informative compared to distance analysis NJ; (2) clades or clusters are more strongly supported when these two regions are combined compared to either region separately; (3) evidence (in the form of remnants of older haplotype lineages) for two colonization events; and (4) significant genetic divergence within the population from Peixoto de Azevedo (State of Mato Grosso, Brazil. The oldest lineage includes populations from Peixoto, Boa Vista (State of Roraima) and Dourado (State of Sao Paulo).(AU)

Country-wide prevalence of Ascogregarina Culicis (Apicomplexa: Lecudinidae), a protozoan parasite of Aedes Aegypti in Trinidad, West Indies

The prevalence of the gregarine parasite Ascogregarina culicis was determined for Aedes aegypti populations in Trinidad, West Indies. Over 5 months, a total of 5,651 Ae. aegypti larvae were collected and identified from 419 sites throughout Trinidad as part of a national dengue surveillance program. Ascogregarina culicis infections were detected in 13.4 percent of 1,986 Ae. aegypti larvae dissected. In 7 of 8 countries or major subdivisions where this parasite was detected in Trinidad, the prevalence per locality ranged from 9.6 to 17.1 percent with an associated parasite density of 19.1-51.9 trophozoites/larva. Confirming that Ae. aegypti populations in Trinidad are highly susceptible to infection with A. culicis parasites, experimental studies showed that a strain of A. culicis from Florida readily infected 3 strains of Ae. aegypti from Trinidad with essentially no associated mortality. This report extends the known geographic range of A. culicis in Ae. aegypti populations and represents one of the first country-wide surveys for this gregarine parasite (AU)