Scanning electron microscopy of the egg of Haemagogus tropicalis

Haemagogus tropicalis is strictly a forest-dwelling species from the fertile valley area of the Amazônia forest. It is a diurnal mosquito, and the oviposition sites for the species include tree holes. The eggs of Hg. tropicalis used in this study were from females captured on Combú Island, situated across from the city of Belém, Guajará Bay, state of Pará, at 1 degrees 25'S latitude and 48 degrees 25'W longitude. The eggs are elliptical and approximately 575 microm long with a width of approximately 144 microm. The ventral surface of the chorionic reticulum has regular chorionic cells with hexagonal and sometimes pentagonal ornamentation. Each chorionic cell has a thick external chorionic reticulum with regular borders. The interior of the chorionic cells have small, evenly distributed tubercles, and the dorsal external chorionic reticulum appears porous. The micropylar apparatus, located on the anterior area of the egg, was formed by a collar with a well-developed frame. Centrally, the micropylar disc had a diameter of approximately 20 microm and the micropylar orifice is 2.1 microm in diameter. These data may enable construction of taxonomic keys for identifying eggs of Haemagogus species.