Culicidae comprises more than 3500 species, some of which are responsible for the spread of various human diseases, causing millions of deaths worldwide. Correct identification of these species is essential for the development of surveillance and control strategies. The most common method of mosquito identification is based on specific traits of the external morphology of species. However, identification of mosquitoes by morphological characters can be inaccurate or even unfeasible if the specimen is damaged or there is a lack of distinguishing features, as in the case of cryptic species complexes. Wing geometric morphometrics is a reliable, affordable tool for the identification of mosquito species, including sibling species. More importantly, it can be used in addition to both traditional morphologic identification methods as well as genetic approaches. Here, wing geometric morphometrics was used to identify sixteen mosquito species from eight genera: Aedes, Coquillettidia, Culex, Limatus, Mansonia, Psorophora, Runchomyia, and Wyeomyia. The 390 specimens used here were collected in São Paulo, Brazil using CDC traps, aspiration, and Shannon traps. Allometry was assessed by multivariate regression of the Procrustes coordinates on centroid size followed by canonical variate analysis and a pairwise cross-validated reclassification test. A Neighbor-Joining tree based on Mahalanobis distances was constructed with 1,000 bootstrap replicates using MorphoJ 1.02 and Past 2.17c. The canonical variate analysis of genera resulted in distinct clusters for Culex, Limatus, and Psorophora and partial overlapping between Aedes, Coquilettidia, and Mansonia, and between Runchomyia and Wyeomyia. Pairwise cross-validated reclassification tests indicated that genera were identified with an accuracy of at least 99% and subgenera with a mean accuracy of 96% and that in 160 of the 240 possible comparisons species were identified with an accuracy of 100%. Our results show that the eight genera in the study were correctly distinguished by wing shape, as were subgenera and most species, demonstrating that wing geometric morphometrics can be used for the identification of the mosquito species studied here.

葫芦科由3500多个物种组成，其中一些是造成各种人类疾病传播的原因，在全世界造成数百万人死亡。正确识别这些物种对于制定监视和控制策略至关重要。蚊子识别的最常见方法是基于物种外部形态的特定特征。但是，如果标本损坏或缺少区别特征（如隐性物种复合物的情况），则通过形态学特征识别蚊子可能不准确，甚至不可行。机翼几何形态计量学是一种可靠，价格合理的工具，可用于识别包括兄弟姐妹在内的蚊种。更重要的是，除了传统的形态学鉴定方法和遗传方法外，还可以使用它。在这里，机翼几何形态计量学被用来识别八个属中的十六种蚊子：伊蚊，洋蓟，库蚊、,、曼索尼亚，假单胞菌，Runchomyia和Wyeomyia。此处使用的390个标本是使用CDC捕集阱，抽吸和Shannon捕集阱在巴西圣保罗收集的。通过对Procrustes坐标在质心大小上进行多元回归，然后进行规范变量分析和成对的交叉验证的重新分类测试，对异体测量进行了评估。使用MorphoJ 1.02和Past 2.17c，使用1,000个自举程序副本，构建了基于Mahalanobis距离的Neighbor-Joining树。属的典型变量分析导致了库蚊，利马图斯和假单胞菌的不同簇，以及伊蚊，Coquilettidia和Mansonia之间的部分重叠以及Runchomyia和Wyeomyia之间。成对的交叉验证的重新分类测试表明，鉴定出的属的准确度至少为99％，子属的平均准确度为96％，在240个可能的比较物种中有160种的准确度为100％。我们的结果表明，研究中的八个属可以通过翼形正确区分，亚属和大多数物种也是如此，这表明翼的几何形态计量学可用于识别此处研究的蚊子。