SURVEY OF THE ANOPHELES-MACULATUS COMPLEX (DIPTERA, CULICIDAE) IN PENINSULAR MALAYSIA BY ANALYSIS OF CUTICULAR LIPIDS

Anopheles maculatus Theobald sensu lato is a species complex now consi sting of eight sibling species; An. maculatus is still represented by two cytologically distinct forms; i.e., the widely distributed sensu s trictu or B, and E from southern Thailand and adjacent areas in northe rn Malaysia. Cuticular lipid profiles in conjunction with principal co mponent analysis was used to separate An. maculatus form E from sensu stricto form B in a preliminary survey of the An. maculatus complex at five locations spanning peninsular Malaysia. The relative rank orders , from the areas of the five gas chromatographic peaks used to determi ne lipid differences for specimens from peninsular Malaysia, matched w ell with those from cytogenetically identified colony specimens of An. maculatus forms B and E. The two-dimensional principal component patt ern of specimens identified as form E was highly clumped, which indica ted that very similar cuticular lipids were present within this putati ve malaria vector. Both forms coexisted in peninsular Malaysia, but fo rm E may be dominant except in the south.