Open Access
Subscription Access
Culex (Culex) gaugleri, a new species (Diptera: Culicidae) from India
Subscribe/Renew Journal
The present study describes Culex (Culex) gaugleri sp. nov. (Diptera: Culicidae) from Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, India based on morphological characters and the DNA sequences, after comparing with other closely related species. The presence of banded and spotted wing classified Culex gaugleri sp. nov. in the Mimeticus subgroup of the genus, Culex Linnaeus. The diagnostic characters of C. gaugleri sp. nov. are include the furcation of vein M on the wing without a pale spot and the anterior surface of all tibia without the longitudinal pale stripes. Further, phyletic relationship based on the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene indicates that C. gaugleri sp. nov. is closer to Culex jacksoni Edwards, 1934 compared to other species of the Mimeticus subgroup, i.e., Culex mimuloides Barraud, 1924, Culex mimeticus Noè, 1899 and Culex tsengi Lien, 1968. Similarly, mitochondrial 16s rRNA phylogeny includes both Cx. mimeticus and Cx. gaugleri in the same clade and separates from other mosquito species. These evidences suggest that Cx. gaugleri sp. nov. is a distinct species. Morphometric data generated on various attributes such as band length in wings are also significant in differentiating from other closely related species. Further studies on other life stages including eggs, larvae and pupae and vector bionomics are suggested.
Keywords
Molecular Phylogeny, Mosquito, New Species, Species Prevalence, Vectors
User
Subscription
Login to verify subscription
Font Size
Information
- Ashfaq, M., Hebert, P.D., Mirza, J.H., Khan, A.M., Zafar, Y. and Mirza, M.S. 2014. Analyzing mosquito (Diptera: culicidae) diversity in Pakistan by DNA barcoding. PLoS ONE, e97268.
- Aziz, H., Zia, A., Anwer, A., Aziz, M., Fatima, S. and Faheem, M. 2017. Zika virus: Global health challenge, threat and current situation. Journal of Medical Virology, 89(6):943-951.
- Barraud, PJ., 1934. The fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Diptera. Volume V. Family Culicidae. Tribes Megarhinini and Culicini. Taylor and Francis, London: 1-510pp.
- Chan, A., Chiang, L.P., Hapuarachchi, H.C., Tan, C.H., Pang, S.C., Lee, R., Lee, K.S., Ng, L.C. and Phua, S.G.L. 2014. DNA barcoding: complementing morphological identification of mosquito species in Singapore. Parasites & Vectors, 7(569):014-0569.
- Doss, C.G., Siva, R., Christopher, B.P., Chakraborty, C. and Zhu, H. 2017. Zika: How safe is India? Infectious Diseases of Poverty, 6:37.
- Folmer, O., Black, M., Hoeh, W., Lutz, R. and Vrijenhoek, R. 1994. DNA primers for amplification of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I from diverse metazoan invertebrates. Molecular Marine Biology and Biotechnology, 3(5):294-299.
- Group, S.Z.S. 2017. Outbreak of Zika virus infection in Singapore: an epidemiological, entomological, virological, and clinical analysis. Lancet Infectious Diseases, 17:813-821.
- Hall, T.A. 1999. BioEdit: A user-friendly biological sequence alignment editor and analysis program for Windows 95/98/NT. Nucleic Acids Symposium Series, 41:95-98.
- Harbach, R. 2017. Mosquito Taxonomic Inventory. Electronic version accessed on 06.11.2020. http://mosquito-taxonomic-inventory.info/sites/mosquito-taxonomic-inventory.info/files/Culex%20classification_15.pdf.
- Hemmerter, S., Šlapeta, J., van den Hurk, A.F., Cooper, R.D., Whelan, P.I., Russell, R.C., Johansen, C.A. and Beebe, N.W. 2007. A curious coincidence: mosquito biodiversity and the limits of the Japanese encephalitis virus in Australasia. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 7(1):100.
- Karlekar, S., Andrew, R. and Deshpande, M. 2020. Culex katezari, A new species of mimeticus mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) from the forest of Gadchiroli region of central India. International Journal of Mosquito Research, 7(6):54-58.
- Kimura, M. 1980. A simple method for estimating evolutionary rates of base substitutions through comparative studies of nucleotide sequences. Journal of Molecular Evolution, 16(2):111-20.
- Kumar, N.P., Rajavel, A.R., Natarajan, R. and Jambulingam, P. 2007. DNA barcodes can distinguish species of Indian mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae). Journal of Medical Entomology, 44(1):1-7.
- Kumar, S., Stecher, G., Li, M., Knyaz, C. and Tamura, K. 2018. MEGA X: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis across computing platforms. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 35:1547-1549.
- Maekawa, Y., Ogawa, K., Komagata, O. and Tsuda, Y. 2016. DNA barcoding for molecular identification of Japanese mosquitoes. Medical Entomology and Zoology, 67:183-98.
- Matsuo, K., Lien, J.C., Kunou, I. and Ito, S. 1974. Morphological studies of the mimeticus group of Genus Culex (Diptera: Culicidae): I. Pale spots on wing and wing venation. Medical Entomology and Zoology, 25(1):51-56.
- Minard, G. and Tran, F.H. 2017. Identification of sympatric cryptic species of Aedes albopictus subgroup in Vietnam: new perspectives in phylosymbiosis of insect vector. Parasites & Vectors, 10(1):1-14.
- Rattanarithikul, R. 1982. A guide to the genera of mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) of Thailand with illustrated keys, biological notes and preservation and mounting techniques. Mosquito Systematics, 14(3):139–208.
- Rattanarithikul, R., Harrison, B.A., Panthusiri, P. and Coleman, R.E. 2005. Illustrated keys to the mosquitoes of Thailand I. Background; geographic distribution; lists of genera, subgenera, and species; and a key to the genera. Southeast Asian Journal of Tropical Medicine and Public Health, 1:1-80.
- Shouche, Y.S. and Patole, M.S. 2000. Sequence analysis of mitochondrial 16S ribosomal RNA gene fragment from seven mosquito species. Journal of Biosciences, 25(4):361-366.
- Sirivanakarn, S. 1976. Medical entomology studies – III. A revision of the subgenus Culex in the Oriental Region (Diptera: Culicidae). Contributions of the American Entomological Institute, 12(2).
- Somboon, P., Phanitchakun, T., Saingamsook, J., Yoshihide, M., Namgay, R. and Harbach, R.E. 2021a. Culex bhutanensis, a new species of the Mimeticus Subgroup of the nominotypical subgenus of the genus Culex Linnaeus (Diptera: Culicidae) from Bhutan. Acta Tropica, 217:105868.
- Somboon, P., Phanitchakun, T., Saingamsook, J., Namgay, R. and Harbach, R.E. 2021b. Culex (Culex) longitubus, A New Species of the Mimeticus Subgroup (Diptera: Culicidae) From Bhutan. Journal of medical entomology, 1-10.
- Suman, D., Tikar, S., Mendki, M., Agrawal, O., Parashar, B. and Prakash, S. 2011. Variations in life tables of geographically isolated strains of the mosquito Culex quinquefasciatus. Medical and Veterinary Entomology, 25(3):276-288.
- Tyagi, B., Munirathinam, A. and Venkatesh, A. 2015. A catalogue of Indian mosquitoes. International Journal of Mosquito Research, 50:50-97.
- WHO [World Health Organization]. Vector-borne diseases, World Health Organization. Electronic version accessed on 02.03.2020. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/vector-borne-diseases.
Abstract Views: 319
PDF Views: 133