Discrimination of Neotropical Anopheles species based on molecular and wing geometric morphometric traits

Morphological similarities among closely related Anopheles species that differ in biological traits and malaria transmission represent a challenge in medical entomology; therefore, new tools are constantly tested to bring solutions. Particularly, in this work, a geometric morphometric analysis of wing geometry variation, based on morphologically and molecularly identified specimens, was applied for the discrimination of fourteen Anopheles species belonging to the Nyssorhynchus, Anopheles and Kerteszia subgenera. DNA barcodes helped to confirm species assignation and the geometric morphometric approach revealed wing form differences not only at the subgenera but also at the species level. Each subgenus presented a particular wing size trend, possibly related to the evolutionary history of these lineages. Wing shape allowed species discrimination, except for some very closely related taxa. The current findings highlight the importance of using complementary approaches involving morphological and molecular data for Anopheles species discrimination.