Boumaza Mounir, Merabti Brahim, Adjami Yasmine, Ouakid Mohamed Laid, Carvajal Thaddeus M
Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Badji Mokhtar University, B.P. 12, Annaba 23000, Algeria.
Ecology Laboratory of Marine and Coastal Environments (EMMAL), Badji Mokhtar University, Annaba 23000, Algeria.
Insects. 2022 Nov 8;13(11):1031. doi: 10.3390/insects13111031.
The application of geometric morphometry on mosquito wings (Culicidae) is considered a powerful tool for evaluating correlations between the phenotype (e.g., shape) and environmental or genetic variables. However, this has not been used to study the wings of the avian malaria vector, . Therefore, the goal of this study is to investigate the intra-specific wing variations between male and female populations in different types of larval habitats and climatic conditions in Algeria. A total of 256 mosquito samples were collected from January 2020 to July 2021 in three cities (Annaba, El-Tarf, and Guelma) of northeastern Algeria that have two distinct climatic condition levels (sub-humid and sub-arid) and different types of larval habitats (artificial and natural). Nineteen (19) wing landmarks (LMs) were digitized and analyzed based on geometric morphometry. Our results revealed differences in the wing shape of female and male mosquito populations, indicating sexual dimorphism. Moreover, canonical variance analysis (CVA) showed that factors, such as climatic conditions and type of larval habitats, also affect the wing shape of female and male mosquito populations. Furthermore, the wing shape of male populations was more distinct compared with female populations.
几何形态测量学在蚊子翅膀（蚊科）上的应用被认为是评估表型（如形状）与环境或遗传变量之间相关性的有力工具。然而，这尚未用于研究鸟类疟疾媒介的翅膀。因此，本研究的目的是调查阿尔及利亚不同类型幼虫栖息地和气候条件下雌雄种群之间的种内翅膀差异。2020年1月至2021年7月期间，在阿尔及利亚东北部的三个城市（安纳巴、艾尔塔夫和盖勒马）共采集了256个蚊子样本，这些城市有两种不同的气候条件水平（亚湿润和亚干旱）以及不同类型的幼虫栖息地（人工和自然）。基于几何形态测量学，对19个翅膀地标点进行了数字化处理和分析。我们的结果揭示了雌雄蚊子种群翅膀形状的差异，表明存在两性异形。此外，典型变量分析（CVA）表明，气候条件和幼虫栖息地类型等因素也会影响雌雄蚊子种群的翅膀形状。此外，雄性种群的翅膀形状与雌性种群相比更为明显。
