1.Reliability of egg rafts electron micrographs for confirming the taxonomic status of Culex pipiens mosquitoes collected from Al-Ahsa, eastern Saudi Arabia
Shaalan, E.A. ; Bekhet, G. ; Abdelmoaty, Z. ; Ahmad, N.W
Tropical Biomedicine 2019;36(1):224-233
Mosquitoes are undesirable arthropods transmitting many diseases not only in
Saudi Arabia but also worldwide. Identifying mosquito species relied for long time on both
larval and adult characters whilst little or no attention was given to eggs. Electron microscopic
studies of mosquito eggs are important as it is not only characterizing the external morphology
of the eggs never seen by stereoscopic microscopes but also facilitates mosquito species
identification. Accordingly, morphology and morphometric of Culex pipiens eggs collected
from Al-Ahsa oasis, eastern Saudi Arabia were examined by scanning electron microscopy
(SEM) for the first time in Saudi Arabia in the present work. Mosquito egg rafts were collected
from breeding sites in Al-Ahsa by using of special long aquatic net. A portion of the rafts was
reared for identification whilst the other portion was preserved in glutaraldehyde and prepared
for SEM examination. Eggs appeared to be conical in shape with two ends, the anterior one
that is represented with the micropyle is more tapered than the posterior end. The
morphometrics gave many characteristics for the eggs such as length, width, proportion of
length /width and so on. Eggs morphology and morphometrics were then compared to that of
other Culex eggs. Our findings using SEM of the eggshell confirmed that the present mosquito
species is Cx. pipiens. Scanning electron micrographs of any mosquito species eggs are
valuable in correlating its fine structure that cannot be easily seen by light microscope and
can assist in species separation. Thus, identifying medically important mosquito species is
crucial in both mosquito and disease control.

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