A description and morphometric comparison of eggs of species of the Anopheles gambiae complex

Eggs of the 6 named species of the Anopheles gambiae complex are described from scanning electron micrographs of specimens obtained from laboratory colonies or wild-caught females. Morphometric measurements of eggs from 5 sources of Anopheles arabiensis, 2 of Anopheles gambiae, one of Anopheles quadriannulatus, 2 of Anopheles bwambae, 2 of Anopheles merus, and one of Anopheles melas are compared, and relationships are analyzed by multivariate statistics. No morphologic characters were species-diagnostic, although tendencies of the saltwater species An. merus and An. melas to have wider decks and shorter floats were confirmed. Species and populations overlapped considerably in principal components and discriminant function analyses based on 10 attributes of eggs. Nevertheless, discriminant functions revealed similarities in eggs of species believed to be most closely related, namely, An. gambiae and An. arabiensis, An. merus and An. melas, and An. quadriannulatus and An. bwambae.