Mosquito species (Diptera, Culicidae) in three ecosystems from the Colombian Andes: identification through DNA barcoding and adult morphology

By

Rozo-Lopez, Paula
Mengual, Ximo

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2015

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

513

Pages

39-64

Subjects

combining methodologies , Culicomorpha , nematocerous Diptera , Neotropical region , species identification

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.513.9561

 

Abstract

Colombia, one of the world’s megadiverse countries, has a highly diverse mosquito fauna and a high prevalence of mosquito-borne diseases. In order to provide relevant information about the diversity and taxonomy of mosquito species in Colombia and to test the usefulness of DNA barcodes, mosquito species collected at different elevations in the departments of Antioquia and Caldas were identified combining adult morphology and barcode sequences. A total of 22 mosquito species from eight genera were identified using these combined techniques. We generated 77 barcode sequences with 16 species submitted as new country records for public databases. We examined the usefulness of DNA barcodes to discriminate mosquito species from the Neotropics by compiling 1,292 sequences from a total of 133 species and using the tree-based methods of neighbor-joining and maximum likelihood. Both methodologies provided similar results by resolving 105 species of mosquitoes separated into distinct clusters. This study shows the importance of combining classic morphological methodologies with molecular tools to accurately identify mosquitoes from Colombia.