GROUPING OF DIFFERENT MOSQUITO SPECIES ON THE BASES OF LARVAL HABITATS

Morphological and molecular characteristics do not provide information on habitat characteristics of members of a particular taxonomic group. Due to habitat adaptations in the course of evolution, it is common for the closely related species to flourish in different habitats. To get information about habitat characteristics of insect species especially disease vectors is utmost important to control their populations under limits. So, in this scenario, present day mosquito ecologists start to classify mosquito species on the bases of their habitat characteristics. Therefore immature mosquitoes were collected from different habitat types and data were recorded for quantitative as well as qualitative parameters that were later used to group the species on the bases of habitats by using the cluster analysis. Twenty two mosquito species collected were grouped in three groups while the two forms Ae. pseudotaeniatus and An. nigerrimus have been represented separate as they do not share the habitat with any of the species. Two anopheline species viz. An. stephensi and An. subpictus have been found to occur in the same group while dengue vector species, Ae. albopictus and Ae. aegypti have been seen in separate groups.