Dark larva a new autosomal larval colour mutant in the malaria mosquito, Anopheles stephensi Liston

Anopheles stephensi is an important urban malaria vector, which is widely distributed throughout the Indian subcontinent. The said vector species has developed resistance to various insecticides and therefore, it is desirable to develop alternative strategies including genetic methods for its control. One of the requirements for such strategy is to establish morphological mutants and to establish the genetic basis of the same. Such mutant markers could be used in the construction of genetically modified strain/s in the genetic control programme of An. stephensi. The dark colour expresses in all larval stages and pupae with full penetarence and uniform expression in both the sexes. The viability of the mutant is as good as the wild type. The genetic studies of the dark larva revealed that the gene da is mono-factorial, autosomal and recessive to the wild type. The gene da is an excellent marker for An. stephensi.