HYBRIDIZATION BETWEEN THE NEARCTIC ANOPHELES PUNCTIPENNIS AND THE PALEARCTIC ANOPHELES ATROPARVUS

Abstract

Interspecific crosses were made between the Palearctic species Anopheles atroparvus Van Thiel and the Nearctic species A. punctipennis Say. Except for most of the X chromosomes, an inverted region in 3R, and band intensity differences the salivary gland chromosome banding patterns are the same in both species. Despite this high level of chromosomal homology very little synapsis of identically banded regions was observed in hybrid complements. This asynapsis and the fact that no adults were produced from either the cross or the reciprocal indicate that there are significant genetic differences between the species.