Description and morphometric analysis of the eggs of Anopheles (Anopheles)vestitipennis (Diptera : Culicidae) from Southern Mexico

Light and scanning electron microscopy were used to compare the eggs of Ano pheles vestitipennis Dyar & Knab females collected from human and animal ba its in 9 villages of southern Mexico. An. vestitipennis eggs are boat-shape d, with lateral floats extending the length of the egg. Both the deck and d orsal surface are covered with hexagonal and pentagonal chorionic cells tha t contain round tubercles in the cell field. Crowns that enclose 3-5 lobed tubercles are present at both egg poles. By light microscopy, the mean leng th/width ratio of eggs of females caught at human bait were statistically d ifferent from those of females caught in horse-baited animal traps. In a re gression tree model that included 19 egg attributes, the same egg groups co uld be separated by their posterior crown length/width ratio and mean anter ior cell deck form factor tan index of their roundness). These findings sup port of the possible existence of 2 An. vestitipennis subpopulations with d ifferent host preferences in southern Mexico.