A PICTORIAL GUIDE TO THE CHROMOSOMAL IDENTIFICATION OF MEMBERS OF THESIMULIUM-DAMNOSUM THEOBALD COMPLEX IN WEST-AFRICA WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE ONCHOCERCIASIS CONTROL PROGRAM AREA

Simulium damnosum Theobald is made up of a complex of sibling species. Nine species are described in the area covered by the World Health Or ganisation's Onchocerciasis Control Programme in West Africa (OCP). Th ese are, S. squamosum, S. yahense, S. canctipauli, S. soubrense, S. le onense, S. konkourense, S. damnosum s.s., S. sirbanum and S. diegueren se. All of them are vectors of human onchocerciasis, albeit to differe nt capacities. Reliable species determination presently depends on lar val cytotaxonomic criteria. The diagnostic chromosomal inversions and other micromorphological characters used in the identification of the species found in the OCP area are presented with figures for their rec ognition. some distributional information is also given.