Evidence to Support Karyotypic Variation of the Mosquito,Anopheles peditaeniatusin Thailand

Eight isoline colonies of Anopheles peditaeniatus Leicester (Diptera: Culicidae) were established from wild-caught females collected from buffalo-baited traps at 8 localities in Thailand. They showed 2 types of X (X 2 , X 3 ) and 4 types of Y (Y 2 , Y 3 , Y 4 , Y 5 ) chromosomes based on the number and amount of major block(s) of heterochromatin present in the heterochromatic arm, and were tentatively designated as Forms B (X 2 , X 3 , Y 2 ), C (X 3 , Y 3 ), D (X 3 , Y 4 ) and E (X 2 , X 3 , Y 5 ). Form B was found in Nan, Ratchaburi, and Chumphon provinces; Form C was obtained in Chon Buri province; Form D was recovered in Kamphaeng Phet province; and Form E was acquired in Chiang Mai, Udon Thani, and Ubon Ratchathani provinces. Crossing studies among the 8 isoline colonies, which were representative of 4 karyotypic forms of An. peditaeniatus , revealed genetic compatibility in providing viable progenies and synaptic salivary gland polytene chromosomes through F 2 -generations, thus suggesting the conspecific nature of these karyotypic forms. These results were supported by the very low intraspecific sequence variations (0.0 – 1.1%) of the nucleotide sequences in ribosomal DNA (ITS2) and mitochondrial DNA (COI and COII) of the 4 forms.