A chromatographic study of the systematic relationship within the Anopheles gambiae complex

In the planning of malaria eradication programmes for Africa, it is necessary to be able to characterize and distinguish between various species of the Anopheles gambiae complex in order to proceed on a sound and economic basis. However, at present there are no reliable taxonomic methods for separating the sibling species which comprise Groups A and B.The study reported was undertaken to investigate the possibility of differentiating morphologically indistinguishable members of this complex on the basis of chromatographic patterns of fluorescing components obtained from extracts of adult mosquitos. The results indicate that this biochemical taxonomic method can be used to characterize and differentiate A. gambiae species that are indistinguishable by conventional taxonomy.