Cytogenetic studies on the malaria vector mosquito Anopheles arabiensis Patton in the Awash Valley, Ethiopia

Blood fed female mosquitoes were collected from human dwellings in the Awash Valley, Ethiopia. Those identified morphologically as A. gambiae s.l. were preserved in Carnoy's fixative for later ovarian polytene chromosomes examination. Only one member of the A. gambiae complex, A. arabiensis, was found by such examination. The polymorphic inversions identified were 2Rb and 3Ra. The frequencies of these inversions were variable in different localities and the former inversion was found to form an altitudinal cline.