African mosquito systematics

Identification of African Culex and Aedes mosquitoes (no current funding – PI Cornel)

Expertise to identify African mosquito fauna is in desperate need. The last reviews of African Culex and Aedes was in 1941 (adults) and 1952 (larvae) and since then many species have been described and published in journals in different languages. I have, when time is available, collected and gathered information on as many African Culex and Aedes as possible with the intention of one day publishing a comprehensive review of these mosquitoes with up to date and more objective identification keys, accompanying diagrams, photographs and notes on their biology and distribution. This work arises out of the necessity from work being done on avian Plasmodium which is vectored by multiple mosquito species. Furthermore, I can foresee tremendous opportunities to examine the usefulness of mosquitoes as bio-indicators to measure changes in habitats. Most African mosquitoes are quite specific in their host feeding preferences and sites where they breed which are parameters that would drastically change even with small environmental disturbances. None of this work could be done without improved systematic keys and biological knowledge.