A guide to the identification of the anopheline mosquitoes (Diptera: culicidae) of Sri Lanka

Abstract

The taxonomy of Oriental and SE Asian anopheline mosquitoes has been extensively studied over the past two decades, resulting in greatly improved characterization of species and the definition of taxonomy features that are important in identification. However, published taxonomic keys for Sri Lankan anophelines have not been revised for over 50 years. This paper presents an illustrated key for the identification of larvae of 21 of the 22 currently recognized local anopheline species (the larval stage of the 22nd species is presently unknown), as a guide to workers engaged in malaria surveillance and control in Sri Lanka