Electrophoretic variation in wild Anopheles pharoensis Theobald in Mwea Irrigation Scheme, Kenya

Abstract

The electrophoretic variation of four enzymes of wild Anopheles pharoensis in Mwea Irrigation Scheme, Kenya, was studied between 1987 and 1988. The enzyme loci examined were aldehyde oxidase, a-glycerophosphate dehydrogenase, β-hydroxyacid dehydrogenase and lactate dehydrogenase. All the loci examined were dimorphic. A mean heterozygosity (H) of 0.341 was obtained, which is comparable to values for other mosquito species. The allelic frequencies were in genetic disequilibrium compared to Hardy-Weinberg predictions. It is proposed that there may be more than one species in the taxon Anopheles pharoensis.