Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association, 13(4):368-374, 1997Copyright A 1997 by the American Mosquito Control Association, Inc.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EGGS OF ANOPHELES (KERTESZIA)I-\NEANU S AND AN O p H ELES (NTSSORAYNC HU S) ANTUNESI

(DIPTERA: CULICIDAE) BY SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPYOSWALDO PAULO FORATTINI,' MARIA ANICE MUREB SALLUM,'

GISELA RITA ALVARENGA MONTEIRO MARQUES, AND DANIEL CORUGEDO FLORES:

ABSTRACT. The eggs of Anopheles laneanus Correa and Cerqueira and, Anopheles antunesi Galvdo andAmaral are described and illustrated with scanning electron micrographs. The egg of An. laneanu.s is comparedwith those of Anopheles cruzii Dyar and Knab and Anopheles bellator Dyar and Knab, and An. antunesi iscompared with Anopheles lutzii Cruz and other Nyssorhynchus species.

INTRODUCTION

Anopheles subgenus Kerteszia includes severalspecies that are acknowledged as vectors of humanmalaria in several countries throughout SouthAmerica. This list includes Anopheles neivai How-ard, Dyar and Knab, An. bellator Dyar and Knab,An. homunculas Komp, and An. cruzii Dyar andKnab. In addition, Anopheles laneanus Correa andCerqueira is suspected to be a vector of human ma-laria in Bolivia (Martinez and Prosen 1953).

Despite its public health importance, the sub-gentts Kerteslia is still poorly known systematicallyand needs a more comprehensive taxonomic study.Since its description, An. laneanus has been thesubject of several taxonomic changes before beingdefinitively elevated to specific rank (Forattini1962, Zavoraink 1973). The immature stages of thisspecies are not adequately described, and no infor-mation on the egg has been published previously.Further, An. cruzii arrd An. bellator are the only 2species of the Kerteslia subgenus for which the ul-trastructure of eggs was described with scanningelectron microscopy (SEM) (Forattini and Marucci1993).

The Myzorhynchella Section of An. (Nyssorhyn-cftas) includes 4 incompletely described species:An. antunesi Galvdo and Amaral, An. lutzii Cruz,An. parvus (Chagas), and An. nigritarsis (Chagas),The egg, adult male, and immature stages of Ar?.nigritarsis remain unknown. The eggs of An. an-tunesi, An. lutzii, and An. parvus are incompletelyknown and based on examinations by light micros-copy: Galvdo and Amaral (1940), GalvSo (1941),and Forattinl (1962) for An. antunesi, Galvdo(1941) for An. lutzii, and Cova Garcia (1961) forAn. parvus. The present study provides descriptionsof the eggs of An. laneanas and An. antunesi withscanning electron rnicrographs.

rDepartamento de Epidemiologia, Faculdade de Safdehiblica, NUPTEM, Universidade de 56o Paulo, AvenidaDoutor Arnaldo, 715, CEP 01246-904, Sdo Paulo, Brazil.

'�Superintend0ncia de Controle de Endemias (SUCEN),Avenida 9 de julho 372, llOzO-Z00 Taubat€, 56o Paulo,Brazll.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Eggs were obtained from ovipositions of 10 fe-males of An. laneanus and 3 females of An. antu-nesi collected in Campos do Jorddo, State of SeoPaulo, Brazil, the type locality of both species. Thefemales were blood fed and traumatized by removalof a wing in order to induce oviposition. Eggs werefixed in alcoholic Bouin's solution 24 h after ovi-position. Fixed eggs were prepared for SEM fol-lowing methodology described by Forattini andMarucci (1993) and examined in a JEOL JSM-Pl5scanning electron microscope immediately aftersputter-coating with gold/carbon. Measurements ofAn. laneanus arlrd An. antunesi were made on 43eggs from 5 females and 11 eggs from 3 females,respectively. Eggs were measured under light mi-croscope using a digital length-measuring setWILD MMS 235. Terminology follows that of Har-bach and Knight (1980).

RESULTS

Anopheles (Kerte szia) IaneanusCorrea and Cerqueira

(Figs. 1-3)

Slze: Width 0.13-0.17 rnrn (mean 0.16 -f 0.009mm), length O.4I4.45 mm (mean 0.43 + 0.01mm), length/width ratio 2.56-3.37 (meat 2.78 +O.16) (n = 43 eggs from 5 females). Color: Black.Overall appearance: Broadly boat-shaped in lateraland ventral views (Figs. 1A, 18 and2A); in lateralview the contour is straight ventrally, concave ondorsal surface (Fig. 2H). Floats are lateral in posi-tion, closer to ventral than dorsal surface, well de-veloped, long (Fig. 1A, lB); frill positioned ante-rior and posterior to the floats (Figs. 1A, IB). Ven-tral surface: Deck narow (Figs. lB and 2A),slightly wider at anterior and posterior 0.2, withslightly expanded areas at anterior and posteriorends both bearing a row of 3-5 lobed tubercles(Figs. 18 and 2D-G). The lobed tubercles are largewith fingerlike extensions like spokes of a cart-wheel, about 9 in number. The deck is completelyenclosed by floats and frill and covered with finetubercles. Deck tubercles irregularly shaped (Figs.28,2C) with several shallow cavities in the tuber-

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